LITTLE ROCK - Red hot Little Rock hosts Sun Belt Conference opponent Georgia Southern for a three-game series at
Gary Hogan Field this weekend. Game one is scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m. with game two on Saturday at 2 p.m. and game three Sunday with an early 11 a.m. first pitch.
Due to possible inclement weather this weekend in central Arkansas, Trojan baseball fans are encouraged to follow @LittleRockBSB on Twitter for weather-related updates to this weekend's series. Announcements will also be made at LRTrojans.com.
Moving On Up:
With the 2-1 victory over 22nd-ranked Louisiana Tech in Ruston Wednesday evening, Little Rock finds itself in uncharted territory. The Trojans have moved up to #31 in the latest RPI rankings, the highest in program history. Little Rock's previous RPI high was 96 as Little Rock has steadily climbed the charts over the last three weeks, winning 11 of its last 14 games and claiming four-straight series victories.
Trojans to Watch For:
Starting on the bump for the Trojans will be the normal Friday starter,
Chandler Fidel. He will be going for his fourth win in a row on his eighth start of the year. Fidel has lasted six innings or longer in his last three starts, getting the wins in each and dropping his ERA down to 4.20. He is only allowing an average of just over five hits in those games while striking out 19.
Pablo Ortiz is penciled in for Saturdays start for the second time since absence of
Cole Townsend in the starting rotation. In his first start, Ortiz went five innings deep while only allowing no earned runs and one hit.
Justin Garcia completed his eighth save of the year Wednesday night versus Louisiana Tech. That moved him tied for fourth for the single-season program record in saves and tied for fifth for all-time saves with 10.
As it sits now, he is on pace for the program record in strikeouts per nine innings with a 14.75 and to be in the top-10 in strikeouts for a single season with a conference leading 53. He leads the nation in appearances with 20 and is on pace to beat his and Ryan McMains' (2000) record for of appearances in a season.
Matt Merino has had the hot bat for the Trojans over the last couple weeks. He currently is on a seven-game hitting streak with the last four being multiple hit games. In the streak he hit in six runs while scoring six times himself.
Chase Coker still remains one triple away from breaking the single-season program record.
Scouting Georgia Southern:
The Eagles have fallen in a slight slump the last week dropping four of their last six games. They started off conference play with a series win against a struggling Louisiana team before sweeping the Sun Belt bottom team Appalachian State. They then turned around to play the Sun Belt's top team, Coastal Carolina in Conway, SC, and managed to get one win from them but dropped the series.
The Trojans will face the right-hander Brian Eichhorn on Friday and right-hander Seth Shuman on Saturday.
Eichhorn has started in seven games this season holding 2-1 record with a low 2.91 ERA. He hold opponents to just .202 batting average while striking out 53 which is tied for the most in the conference with Garcia.
Seth Shuman is 3-3 on the year in seven starts as well with 5.24 ERA. Against conference opponents he has struggled going 1-2 in his three starts while letting in 18 earned runs.
Series Against Georgia Southern:
Little Rock and Georgia Southern have faced off 25 times in the past as the Eagles hold an 18-7 advantage over the Trojans. This will be only the third year competing against the Eagles in Sun Belt.
The first year was in 2015 when Georgia Southern swept the Little Rock at
Gary Hogan Field. The Trojans claimed the series winning 4-13. Last season, Little Rock took game one in Statesboro, but dropped the next two.
Last Time Out:
The matchup against Louisiana Tech was one with few hits in the game as the Trojans were held to only five hits in the game, but only gave up three themselves.
Aaron Funk threw seven innings only allowing one hit and striking out five.
Kale Emshoff blasted a game tying home run to start off the eighth inning with the Trojans down 0-1.
Riley Pittman singled right after him to put the go-ahead run on first.
Ryan Benavidez capitalized with a triple to center field to score Pittman and give the Trojans the evenual game-winning run.
The ball was in the hands of Garcia for the ninth inning as he completed the save.
Promotions:
Little Rock baseball invites all Boy Scouts of America out to
Gary Hogan Field for Boy Scout Night. Any scout dressed in uniform will get free admission into the game (parents are full price).
#LittleRocksTeam
