Trojan Road Trip Concludes at Appalachian State

Little Rock at Appalachian State
Location	Boone, N.C.
Venue	Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium
First Pitch	Friday, Apr. 27- 5 p.m. CT Saturday, Apr. 28 - 2 p.m. CT Sunday, Apr. 29 - 10 a.m. CT
Records	Little Rock (21-19, 10-7 SBC) Appalachian St.(11-29, 3-15 SBC)
Watch	ESPN3
Stats	TrojanStats.com
Twitter	@LittleRockBSB
Mountaineer Preview	AppStateSports.com

LITTLE ROCK - Little Rock will round out its eight-game road trip in Boone, North Carolina this weekend to take on Appalachian State in a three-game series at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium.
 
Play will begin on Friday for game one at 5 p.m. CT, followed by game two on Saturday at 2 p.m. CT. To accommodate Little Rock's travel schedule, game three's start time has been pushed forward to 10 a.m. CT. All three games will be streamed live on ESPN3.
 
Heading into the weekend, the Trojans continue to hold a half game lead in the Sun Belt West Division over Louisiana and UT Arlington with a 10-7 conference record, sitting above .500 overall at 21-18 overall.
 
Conference ERA Standouts:
Three Trojans rank in the top-six in ERA in conference play. Freshman Hayden Arnold leads the Trojans and sits second overall with a 1.40 average in the seven appearances and 19.1 innings he's thrown. Overall, he holds the second best ERA on the team with a 3.00 average, only behind Donavin Buck. Arnold is penciled in to get his second start of the year on Saturday
 
Buck has a team low 2.68 ERA and a sixth best in conference play holding teams to 2.14 earned-run average coming out of the bullpen. He remains unbeaten going 4-0 while appearing in 20 games and throwing the third-most innings and having the third-most strikeouts on the team.
 
Chandler Fidel will go for his sixth win in 12 appearance on Friday. He currently has a 3.39 ERA overall while throwing the fourth lowest in the conference at 1.74.
 
Fidel is coming off a complete-game performance last week against Louisiana in which the Trojans lost 1-0. In his eight innings thrown, he only gave up three hits while tallying five strikeouts and walking one. It was his second complete game of the year after throwing one against Fort Wayne back in February.
 
Batting Bursts:
Chase Coker has exploded for six hits, scoring nine runs and knocking in three runs over the past two games for the Trojans. He leads the team with a .326 batting average while also breaking the program's single-season triples record, hitting his fifth of the year on Tuesday at Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
 
Marcus Ragan had hit a mid-season slump at the plate, but currently is on a four-game hitting streak. In the last two games, he has knocked in five runs off of four hits and scoring once himself.
 
Scouting Appalachian State:
The Mountaineers have had a struggling year inside and out of the Sun Belt going just 3-15 in conference and 11-29 overall.
 
Their problems have stemmed from a struggling performance at the plate hitting only a .183 average as a team in Sun Belt play. They have produced only 39 runs which is the least in conference play and 18 less than the next closest team.
 
What the Mountaineers do have is Will Sprinkle who is leading the conference in ERA against Sun Belt opponents with a 1.00 average in five appearances and 18.0 innings-pitched. The Trojans are penciled in to face him on Sunday.
 
A Recent Past:
Little Rock and Appalachian State have a short history only facing off against each other in the Chris Curry era. The Trojans began the series with a sweep back in 2015, but in the last two years, the Mountaineers have won the series taking two of three games.
 
Home Sweet Home:
After this series, baseball will take a break during the week to focus on finals before Little Rock returns to Gary Hogan Field for a conference matchup against the Jaguars of South Alabama for a three-game series.
 
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