Little Rock Shutout in Series Finale

LITTLE ROCK - Little Rock baseball is held to just five hits as Georgia Southern shuts out the Trojans 1-0 on Sunday afternoon at Gary Hogan Field.
 
The Eagles sweep the two-game series pushing Little Rock's record to 17-13 overall and now 6-5 in conference.
 
Matt Merino kept his hitting streak alive, extending it to nine games, after getting one of Little Rock's five hits. That streak now ties Marcus Ragan for the longest streak of the season.
 
Pablo Ortiz got a tough loss after only giving up the one run in the first inning and then shutting out the Eagles the rest of his time on the mound. He ended the day going six innings deep while tallying six strikeouts and only giving up three hits. The loss drops his record to 2-1 on the year.
 
"I thought Pablo Ortiz and Hayden Arnold were excellent on the mound today," head coach Chris Curry said. "They gave us more than enough chances to win the game by making some big pitches in some traffic situations. They gathered themselves and shut down some potential innings."
 
The freshman Arnold came into the game in the seventh inning and finished it out for the Trojans throwing two strikeouts, walking one and giving up three hits.
 
Chase Coker was able to reach base in the ninth inning with a one-out bunt single that was tough to field for the Eagles third baseman. The hot hitting of Matt Merino came up representing the winning run at the plate, but he struck out swinging to bring Troy Alexander up for the final out.
 
Alexander hit a shot towards the left field wall, but left it just short to fly out and end the game in a tough loss for the Trojans.
 
Little Rock will now travel to Norman, Oklahoma, to play a ranked Oklahoma Sooners team on Tuesday starting at 6:30 p.m.
 
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