LITTLE ROCK – UALR baseball will look to get back in the win column with a midweek non-conference trip to Oral Roberts in Tulsa, Okla., on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
SCOUTING ORAL ROBERTSThe Golden Eagles come into Tuesday's matchup with the Trojans after taking two of three from Summit League opponent North Dakota State and winning 15-5 at Oklahoma State.
Oral Roberts has 10 players who have at least 86 at-bats hitting over .300 this season. Derrian James and Audie Afenir lead the team with a .350 batting average. James has 13 doubles and 34 RBIs for the season while Afenir is tied for the team-high in hits.
Left-hander Tyler Buss (2-0) will make his fourth start and 13th appearance of the season on Tuesday. Buss has a 3.04 ERA in 23.2 innings while striking out 20.
ON THE MOUND FOR THE TROJANSRight-hander
Reed Willenborg will make his fourth start of the season. Willenborg was fantastic in last start at No. 14 Missouri last Tuesday, earning his first-career win in eight innings. Willenborg struck out seven with 109 pitches.
OFFENSIVE POWERThe Trojans continue to swing their bats well as of late with three players hitting over the .320 mark. Over the past week, UALR has improved its overall batting average from .243 to .262, jumping from 10th to seventh in the conference.
Ryan Scott has the third-highest overall batting average in the Sun Belt at .371, the 73rd-highest in the nation. Scott has made plenty of big hits for the Trojans this season with 17 doubles, the most in the Sun Belt and ninth-most in Division I. Scott has the most multiple hit games for the Trojans this season with 15.
Tanner Rockwell continues his hot streak after winning his first Sun Belt Player of the Week award last Tuesday. Rockwell is currently on a nine-game hitting streak while he's also on a 12-game reached base streak. Rockwell has the most multiple RBI games this season with seven and has the third-most multiple hit games with 11.
With Rockwell batting .356 for the season (fifth in the Sun Belt), both he and Scott are the best hitting duo in the Sun Belt this season.
Kyle Kirk led the team with a .429 batting average, six hits in 14 at-bats and five RBIs. Kirk also led the team with a .529 on-base percentage. Kirk drew the second-most walks for the week with three. Kirk hit what would be the game-winning RBI single in the top of the ninth against No. 14 Missouri last Tuesday Tuesday. After this past week's games, Kirk has the Trojans' longest reached base and hitting streaks at 16 and 12 games, respectively. Kirk has the second-most multiple hit games and multiple RBI games for UALR this season with 12 and six, respectively.
In Sun Belt games this season, UALR has the fourth-highest team batting average at .287. The Trojans have the second-most hits (195) and fifth-most runs (102) in conference games this year.
CAREER-HIGHS ON THE MOUNDAll three of UALR's starting pitchers set career-highs for strikeouts in a single game against Georgia Southern this weekend.
Jarrid Garcia started the weekend series with 11 strikeouts, the most strikeouts for a UALR pitcher since 2013.
Cory Malcom continued the trend with seven strikeouts on Saturday while
Sam Thoele recorded 10 against.
The last time two UALR pitchers had double-digit strikeouts in a weekend was in May 2007 when David Klumpp and Ashur Tolliver each recorded 11 against Troy.
FIELDING MATTERSUALR has the best overall fielding percentage in the Sun Belt at .977, ranking 25th-best in the nation. The Trojans have only committed 30 errors this season, the fewest in the conference. To compare, South Alabama and Arkansas have the next fewest errors at 43.
In Sun Belt games this season, UALR also boasts the highest fielding percentage at .984 while also committing the fewest errors with 12.
NEXT TIME OUTAfter Tuesday's game at Oral Roberts, UALR will continue its eight-game road trip with a stop at Indiana State for a three-game non-conference series starting on Friday at 5:30 p.m. (CT). There will be little for rest after the series as the Trojans head to Stillwater, Okla., for a midweek matchup with the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
