LITTLE ROCK – With a Sun Belt Conference Tournament berth on the line, UALR baseball (15-31, 11-15) faces rival Arkansas State (23-27, 10-16) starting on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in Jonesboro. The series will continue on Friday at 6 p.m. before concluding on Saturday at 1 p.m.
SCOUTING ARKANSAS STATE
Arkansas State lost to Ole Miss 17-3 on Tuesday night after sweeping conference opponent Texas State in San Marcos this past weekend.
The Red Wolves are led on offense by Zach George with a .388 batting, leading the Sun Belt conference. George leads Arkansas State with 69 hits, a .511 slugging percentage and a .532 on-base percentage. Although he has only played in 31 games, Lucas Feddersen has the second-highest batting average at .358. Ty White and Blake Austin are also hitting above the .300 mark this season. Baker leads the Red Wolves with six home runs and 98 total bases this season.
Right-hander David Owen (3-4) will make his 14th start for A-State on Thursday night. Owen has a 2.81 ERA in 80 innings this season and leads the Red Wolves with 65 strikeouts.
Righty Adam Grantham will make his eighth start of the year on Friday. Grantham is the Red Wolves hardest pitcher to get hits off of as opponents are only hitting .194 off the right-hander this season. In five starts against conference opponents, Grantham still has the lowest opposing batting average at .217.
Arkansas State is currently undecided on a starter for Saturday's series finale.
SERIES AGAINST ARKANSAS STATE
The Trojans are currently 43-70 all-time against the Red Wolves. UALR took two of three games against A-State last season at Gary Hogan Field after taking two of three in 2013 in Jonesboro.
ON THE MOUND FOR THE TROJANS
Sam Thoele (2-6) will make his 11th start of the season for UALR on Thursday. Thoele has the second-most strikeout for the Trojans this season with 55. Thoele's last start came against Georgia Southern on April 19 and has since made three appearances out of the bullpen. Thoele's last start on the road came on April 5 against Georgia State as he pitched eight innings and earned the win.
Left-hander Jarrid Garcia (1-3) will make his 10th start on Friday. Garcia got the no-decision last Friday against ULM with a six-inning performance. Opposing batters are only hitting .251 against Garcia this seasonin 52.2 innings on the mound.
The Trojans ace, Cory Malcom (5-3), will get his 13th start on Saturday, tying Cameron Allen's team-high last season. Malcom picked up his fifth win with a strong, eight-inning performance in last Saturday's 4-1 win over ULM. Malcom leads the Trojans with lowest opposing batting average at .245, a 3.62 ERA and 61 strikeouts. This year, Malcom is allowing just 1.87 walks per nine innings, the 118th-best in Division I.
SUN BELT TOURNAMENT SCENARIOS
Major post-season implications will play a factor this weekend as the Trojans try to make it into the eight-team Sun Belt Conference Tournament field. UALR is currently in ninth-place and a half-game behind ULM.
The Trojans can automatically make the tournament with a sweep of Arkansas State. With two wins, UALR would also need ULM to lose two games to Louisiana or need Texas State lose two games to UT Arlington or a Texas State sweep of the Mavericks. With one win, the Trojans would need sweeps of ULM and Texas State.
CONFERENCE WINS
UALR successfully matched last year's conference wins total of 11 with its victory against ULM last Saturday afternoon. A three-game sweep of Arkansas State this weekend would give UALR 14 conference wins for the year, the most since 2000 when the Trojans picked up 16.
FIRST-YEAR SUCCESS
Head coach Chris Curry has the highest conference winning percentage and most conference wins of any first-year UALR head baseball coach in the program's history.
OVER .320
Three Trojans are hitting over the .320 mark this season, including Ryan Scott, Kyle Kirk and Tanner Rockwell. After 45 games in 2014, only two UALR players were hitting above the .300 mark which included Rockwell at .309.
After hitting just .200 at the same point of the season last year, Scott is tied for the highest batting average by a Trojan this season at .330. Scott is tied for the conference lead with 19 doubles (25th in the nation) and 0.41 doubles per game (19th in the nation). Earlier this year, Scott had a hitting streak of 17 games. With 17 multiple-hit games this year, Scott is tied for the team high.
Tanner Rockwell has been a pivotal part of UALR's offense this season with a .326 batting average. In Sun Belt play, Rockwell leads the conference with a .413 batting average and 32 RBIs. In those games, Rockwell has the second-most hits with 43, second-most total bases with 63 and fourth-most doubles with 11. Rockwell earned SBC Player of the Week honors for the first time after going 5 for 5 in the second game of UALR's series with Texas State, tying the UALR record for hits in a single game. Rockwell had a career-high four RBIs on two occasions this season against Georgia State and Louisiana. As the leadoff batter, Rockwell is hitting .481 against the opposition, the highest average for a UALR player. With runners in scoring position, Rockwell leads the team with a .365 average.
Kyle Kirk has had no trouble in his first season as a Trojan as he has hit .321 for the year. Kirk is tied for the team high for multi-hit games this season with 17. Earlier this season, Kirk amassed a reached-base streak of 18 games, the longest by a UALR player this year. The lefty has been a force against right-handed pitchers with a .357 average, the best by a Trojan player this season. With two outs, Kirk is hitting a team-high .388.
CATCH 'EM IF YOU CAN
Senior catcher Drew Merten has caught 23 baserunners stealing this season, the most in the Sun Belt conference.
LAST TIME OUT
UALR's pitching staff was at its best in Tuesday's game against UCA. Starter Stephen Chandler gave the Trojans a great start before reliever Brent Mason earned career-highs for innings pitched (2.2) and strikeouts (3). Tanner Rockwell gave another great relief outing as he struck out one and allowed no hits or walks in one inning on the mound after starting at third base.
NEXT TIME OUT
Depending on the results of this weekend's conference series, the Trojans will either play once again in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament on Wednesday, May 20, or Saturday's series finale at Arkansas State will be the final game of the 2015 season.
