LITTLE ROCK – The 2017 regular season will draw to a close this weekend as Little Rock baseball (21-31, 11-16 Sun Belt) travels to Arkansas State (24-26, 11-16) for a three-game series beginning on Thursday at 6:30 p.m., at Tomlinson Stadium in Jonesboro. The series will continue on Friday night at 6:30 p.m., before concluding on Saturday at 1 p.m.
The Trojans and Red Wolves will ultimately be battling for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament's No. 7 seed. With one Texas State loss to UT Arlington, the winner of this weekend's series will be the No. 7 seed. If the Trojans lost the series, they
would need to avoid being swept and have Texas State take a series loss to take the No. 8 seed.
Little Rock is 45-74 all-time against Arkansas State with the last series win at Arkansas State occurring in 2013. In the Trojans' last visit to the Red Wolves in 2015, both squads were battling for the final spot in that year's tournament. A-State went on to win the next-to-last game of the regular season in a 14-inning thriller to clinch the No. 8 seed.
The Trojans will throw lefty
Cole Townsend (2-1, 3.47 ERA) in
the series opener on Thursday. Townsend made his last start at ULM on March 25 and took his only loss of the season. He has thrown five games and eight innings of relief work since then and has only allowed two runs. Starters for Friday and Saturday have yet to be determined.
The Red Wolves will toss right-hander Tyler Mitzel (1-3, 5.47 ERA) in the series opener. In his last outing at Georgia Southern, Mitzel took the no-decision as he threw six innings, struck out seven and allowed three runs on nine hits and three walks. Like Little Rock, A-State's starters for Friday and Saturday have yet to be determined.
- Little Rock's last series win against Arkansas State occurred in 2014 at home while the last series win on the road happened in 2013.
- For the first time since the 2000 and 2001 seasons, Little Rock will making its second consecutive Sun Belt Conference Tournament appearance.
- At 436 strikeouts, Little Rock's pitching staff is just three Ks away from breaking the program's single-season record.
- With 100 strikeouts for the season, Cory Malcom is eight strikeouts back of the program's single-season mark of 108 set by Brad Cherry in 2003.
- A win on Thursday would be Little Rock's first series-opening victory in Jonesboro since 2010.
- A series win would be Little Rock's first in Jonesboro since 2013.
- A series win would give Little Rock the Sun Belt Tournament's No. 7 seed if Texas State also took a loss.
- A series win also assures the Trojans go to the Sun Belt Tournament with no worse than the No. 8 seed.
- A sweep guarantees Little Rock the Sun Belt Tournament's No. 7 seed and would be the Trojans' first against the Red Wolves since 2008 in Jonesboro.
- A sweep of Arkansas State would be the first time since 1999 that Little Rock has swept two Sun Belt opponents in back-to-back weeks. Those opponents — New Orleans and Arkansas State.
- Riley Pittman has the team's longest hitting streak of the season at 13 games.
- Shortstop Zach Baker has made 106 consecutive starts — every game since joining the team last season.
- Nik Gifford has reached base safely in 11 consecutive games.
