NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Little Rock baseball's bats were kept quiet as it began its three-game series at Stephen F. Austin with a 6-4 loss on Friday night at Jaycees Field.
The Trojans (6-8) were held to just three hits for the night while the Lumberjacks (6-9) came out with seven.
Dalton Thomas was 1 for 2 with an RBI and two walks while
Nik Gifford finished 1 for 3 with an RBI and a run. Trojan starter
Cory Malcom (1-0) pitched 6.2 innings and struck out six while allowing four runs on five hits and two walks. The senior earned the no-decision after throwing 104 pitches and came up one K shy of his 200th career strikeout.
"It was a typical Friday night matchup where you had good pitching on both sides," head coach
Chris Curry said. "That game came down to execution, and I told the team that you're going to be able to point to one or two at-bats and one or two pitches that change the course of the game."
After a scoreless first inning, Little Rock got some runs on the board to begin the second.
Cameron Knight got on base with a leadoff walk before Gifford hit an RBI double to the right center gap. The throw home allowed Gifford to advance to third. A sacrifice fly to right by
Zach Baker scored Gifford to give Little Rock a 2-0 lead.
The Trojans hit a small bump in the bottom of the second inning as SFA knotted the game at 2-2. With two outs, the Lumberjacks loaded the bases with two walks and a double before a single to center by Josh Campbell plated two runs.
Little Rock retook the lead in the top of the third. With runners on the corners and two outs, a wild pitch allowed
Danny Mitchell Jr. to score from third while Thomas advanced to second. A strikeout ended the frame, but the Trojans were back on top at 3-2.
After SFA's Connor Fikes singled to right with one out in the bottom of the third, Zac Michener hit an RBI double to left center to tie the game. With two outs, a wild pitch scored the go-ahead run to give the Lumberjacks their first lead at 4-3.
The game went four innings without another run until the Trojans finally tied the game at 4-4 in the top of the eighth. With two on and two out, Thomas hit an RBI single back up the middle to score
Bryce Dimitroff from second for the equalizing run.
SFA went ahead again in the bottom of the eighth. The Lumberjacks loaded the bases with two singles and a walk before the Trojans walked home a run on a 3-2 count. A ground out to first by Gavin Gregory then scored another run to give SFA a 6-4 lead. The Trojans didn't respond as Lumberjack closer Tyler Starks earned the save (2) with two strikeouts, a walk and a ground out.
Little Rock's
Ryan LeMoine (0-1) picked up the loss in his 10th relief appearance of the season while Stephen F. Austin's Will Vest (1-0) took the win with one inning of relief work.
"We've got a lot of things that we need to get better at," Curry said. "The bottom line is coming together and playing team baseball. We're just pieces right now. The guys care, they're trying hard and they came back on them, but that's just the foundation. The execution piece has to come next, and we're looking forward to coming down here tomorrow and getting back after it."
Little Rock will look to even the series tomorrow at the new start time of 12 p.m. The game was moved up two hours due to the threat of rain later in the afternoon.
