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Box Score 2 LITTLE ROCK, Ark. ? The UALR baseball team (5-1) used a dominating pitching performance in the first game and a walk-off homer in the second bout to sweep a doubleheader with Northern Iowa (0-2) on Saturday. Junior Joe Campbell (1-0) and freshman Ashur Tolliver (1-0) combined on a two-hit shutout in UALR's 8-0 victory in game one. Tolliver then finished the second game with 2.2 innings of scoreless relief and earned the win after senior Brett Lawler hit a walk-off solo homer in the bottom of the 10th.
The two teams will close out the series on Sunday at Gary Hogan Field. First pitch is slated for 1 p.m.
UALR 8, Northern Iowa 0
UALR plated two runs in the bottom of the first inning, and that would be all the run support Campbell would need, as he combined with Tolliver on a two-hit shutout to lead the Trojans to an 8-0 win in game one.
Senior Brian Asbill led the Trojans with a 2-for-4 day at the plate, while seniors Brett Lawler and Tyler Mason chipped in two RBI a piece. The Trojans racked up 10 hits in the win, with five different players enjoying a multi-hit game.
UALR plated two runs in the bottom of the first to take an early lead off UNI starter Taylor Sinclair (0-1). Lawler put the Trojans on the board when his single to short scored senior Brian Smiley from third. Asbill followed with his first RBI of the game, pushing across junior Osvaldo Torres, with a double to center.
Mason extended the Trojans' lead to 4-0 with a two-out RBI double in the third (scoring sophomore Kyle Rehnstrom) and a two-out RBI base knock in the fifth (scoring Asbill). UALR broke the game wide open in the bottom of the sixth, scoring four runs to go on top 8-0.
Lawler made it a 5-0 contest with a RBI single through the right side. After Torres scored from third on a wild pitch, Asbill capped off the scoring with a two-run double down the left field line.
Campbell, who retired 11-straight Panthers at one point, picked up his first Division-I victory by allowing just two hits and a walk over 7.0 innings pitched. Tolliver closed out the game with 2.0 perfect innings, facing the minimum six batters with three strikeouts.
Sinclair took the loss for UNI after allowing seven hits, two walks and four runs (one earned) over 5.0 innings of work. Jordan Kraayenbrink and Dane Embury accounted for UNI's two hits in the loss.
UALR 6, Northern Iowa 5 (10 innings)
Junior Robert Taylor went 2-for-5 with three RBI in the second game, but it was Lawler's solo homer in the bottom of the 10th that decided the game. The walk-off homer was Lawler's first of the year, as well as his only hit in the game.
The Panthers held a 3-1 lead after three innings, but the Trojans scored one run in the fourth and two in the fifth to tie the game at 4-4. Smiley got the Trojans going in the fourth with a leadoff double. Asbill came in to pinch run for Smiley, and came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Torres.
UALR tied the game at 4-all in the fifth thanks to a run-scoring single from Asbill, and a fielding error by the Panthers which allowed senior Ryan Gotcher to score from third. Another UNI fielding error allowed the Trojans to take a 5-4 lead in the seventh, as Asbill reached on an error at short, then scored on a single up the middle from Taylor.
UNI evened things up in the top of the eighth after Brandon Douglas sparked the offense with a leadoff double. Douglas took third on a passed ball, then came around to score on a groundout by Brett Featherston.
Reliever Chad Epperson (0-1) retired the Trojans in order in the bottom of the ninth to send the game into extra innings. The Panthers tried to rally in the top of the 10th when Dane Embury hit a one-out double, but Tolliver responded by retiring the next two batters to end the threat (strikeout, fly out).
Epperson retired the first two batters he faced in the bottom of the 10th, but could not get past Lawler, as the College Station, Texas-native hit a two-out solo homer to right to end the game.
