Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 LITTLE ROCK, Ark. ? The Arkansas-Little Rock baseball team (4-4) found the going tough on Friday, as Northern Iowa (2-0) scored a pair of victories at Gary Hogan Field. The Panthers weren't slowed by the cold weather, snapping UALR's three game win streak with 6-2 and 8-1 victories.
The two squads opened the series on Thursday night, but had to stop play in the third due to rain and decided to pick things up on Friday afternoon. UALR led 1-0 when play was stopped thanks to a solo homer from senior Tim Lawrence and three scoreless innings from sophomore Shane Landry, who allowed just one hit.
It was a different story when play resumed, as Eric Hoffman stroked a two-run double off junior Matt Bates (0-1) to give UNI a 2-1 lead. Senior Derek Eilers knotted the game at 2-all in the bottom of the sixth, plating senior Jacob Stover with an RBI triple to left.
After stranding five runners over the fifth and sixth frames, UNI scratched across two runs in the eighth to go ahead 4-2. Bates managed to retire the first two batters of the inning before walking Curt Bradley and surrendering a single to Brett Douglas. Junior Dustin Turner came on for Bates, but couldn't escape the jam, as Deric Manrique delivered a two-run triple to put the Panthers on top for good.
UNI took advantage of two UALR fielding errors in the top of the ninth to make it a 6-2 ballgame and put the contest out of reach. Bates took the loss for the Trojans after allowing four runs over 4.2 innings of work. Zach Jevne (1-0) got the win for the Panthers by allowing just two hits and a run over 5.0 innings.
Game two wasn't much better for the Trojans, as the Panther pitching staff held the home team to three hits (two of which came courtesy of Stover). Senior Rob Harmon (0-1) got the start for UALR and mowed down the opposition through the first three innings ? as seven of the first nine outs came by strikeout.
Harmon ran into trouble in the fourth, however, as a leadoff double by Jesse Oster paved the way for a three-run inning by the Panthers. Clayton Daniels drove in the first run with a base knock, but it was Brett Featherston who delivered the biggest blow, jacking a two-run homer to center to put UNI on top 3-0. Featherston went 3-for-4 in the win, with three runs scored and two RBI.
After a scoreless fourth, the Panthers pushed across runs in each of the next three frames to extend their lead to 8-0. UALR broke in to the scoring column in the bottom of the eighth, compliments of a RBI single from Stover, but could not get anything going against UNI's rotation.
Taylor Sinclair (1-0) threw 6.0 scoreless innings, scattering two hits, to pick up the win in his 2006 debut. Harmon got the loss after allowing four runs, six hits and three walks over 5.1 innings.
UALR returns to action on Tuesday when it travels to Stillwater, Okla., to face Oklahoma State at 4 p.m. The Trojans will face OSU the following day as well, also at 4 p.m.
