LITTLE ROCK – UALR baseball (14-23) begins a three-game non-conference series at Indiana State (17-21) in Terre Haute, Ind., on Friday at 5:30 p.m. (CT). The series will continue on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. (CT) before concluding at noon (CT) on Sunday.
SCOUTING INDIANA STATEThe Sycamores come into this weekend's series after losing two of three to No. 16 Dallas Baptist in conference action and beating Purdue 7-6 on Tuesday night.
Indiana State has three players batting over .300 this season. With 77 at-bats, Andrew Gutierrez leads the team with a .338 average. Andy Young leads the team with 45 hits, 10 doubles, 32 RBIs. With a .280 average, Jacob Hayes leads the team with 30 runs, five triples, eight home runs, a .576 slugging percentage and a .400 on-base percentage.
The Sycamores will start lefty Jeff Degano (6-3) on Friday. With 85 strikeouts this season, Degano has the sixth-most K's in Division I. Degano records 11.14 strikeouts per nine innings, 24th-best in the country. Degano has a 2.49 ERA in 68.2 innings and has two combined shutouts for the year.
ISU's Ryan Keaffaber (1-4) will take the mound for the Saturday night matchup in Terre Haute. Keaffaber has a 2.87 ERA in 47 innings this season while opponents are hitting .267 against him.
Indiana State will put Ethan Larrison (2-3) on the hill for the series finale on Sunday. Larrison has a 4.81 ERA in 33.2 innings.
SERIES AGAINST INDIANA STATEThe Trojans are 1-1 all-time with the Sycamores. The two teams last played in 2005 with UALR picking up a 3-2 win in 10 innings. The only other contest between UALR and Indiana State took place in 1990 with the Sycamores getting a 5-1 win.
ON THE MOUND FOR THE TROJANSJarrid Garcia (1-2) will make his seventh start of the season in Friday night's series opener. Opponents are only hitting .231 off the left-hander this season, the lowest average for a Trojan pitcher. Garcia delivered one of best performances last Friday as he struck out 11 against Georiga Southern. Garcia's 11 K's were the most for a Trojan pitcher since 2013.
Sam Thoele (2-5) gets the nod for Saturday night's game. Thoele has the second-most strikeouts for a UALR player this season with 44 and has the second-lowest opposing batting at .250.
The Trojans' starter for Sunday is to be announced depending on the rest of the weekend series.
OFFENSIVE POWERThe Trojans continue to swing their bats well as of late with three players hitting over the .320 mark.
Ryan Scott has the third-highest overall batting average in the Sun Belt at .366, the 97th-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 eleventh-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 13-game reached base streak that started on April 3 at Georgia State. Rockwell has the most multiple RBI games this season with seven and has the third-most multiple hit games with 11.
With Rockwell batting .348 for the season (fifth in the Sun Belt), both he and Scott are the best hitting duo in the Sun Belt this season.
After
Kyle Kirk drew two walks against Oral Roberts on Tuesday, Kirk extneded the Trojans' longest active reached base to 17 games, tied for the longest this season. Kirk's streak started on March 27 against Appalachian State as he went 2 for 4 with a walk-off single. 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 last 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 .978, ranking 16th-best in the nation. The Trojans have only committed 30 errors this season, the fewest in the conference. To compare, Arkansas State has 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 wrapping up the non-conference weekend in Terre Haute, UALR will travel to Stillwater, Okla., for a midweek non-conference matchup with the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Tuesday. The Cowboys are currently ranked No. 9 by Collegiate Baseball.
