LITTLE ROCK - Little Rock faces another tough road test, taking on 16th-ranked Oklahoma at L. Dale Mitchell Park on Tuesday, April 10 at 6:30 p.m. in Norman, Oklahoma.
Hot Trojan Hitting:
Matt Merino is one game away from holding the longest hitting streak on the year. He is sitting at nine games with a hit, tying the mark set by
Marcus Ragan who did it at the turn of February and March. Merino has skyrocketed his average from .286 at the beginning of the streak to a .321 average now while getting multiple hits in five of the nine games.
Ryan Benavidez has seen hot hitting since his consistent reemergence into the starting lineup. Since the UT Arlington series he is hitting a .370 average while producing six RBI's and scoring twice himself.
Chase Coker has taken over as the team's leading hitter with a .340 average while getting a hit in all but one game since the UT Arlington series with the one triple away looming to break the single-season record for triples.
Bullpen Strength:
Donavin Buck and
Justin Garcia have developed into a great one-two punch for Little Rock out of the bullpen. The combo is sitting at fifth (Buck, 2.64) and sixth (Garcia, 2.83) in ERA in the Sun Belt, respectively.
Buck has only allowed three earned-runs in the past 11 games pitched while throwing 21.1 innings. In that stretch he has also tallied 18 strikeouts and only walked three. Garcia has continued to bounce around the top-10 in the country in strikeouts per-nine-innings. He is currently eighth with a 13.89 average on 54 strikeouts off of just 35 innings pitched.
Scouting Oklahoma:
The Sooners sit atop the Big-12 standings with an 8-1 conference record and 23-11 overall. They have had a favorable schedule playing only 10 of their games away from L. Dale Mitchell Park.
As a team, the Sooners are hitting .277 overall with three players hitting .300 or better. Their run production is spread throughout the entire lineup with eight different players having 15 or more RBI's and four with more than 25.
The relief staff for the Sooners has four who are holding an ERA below 2.00 and at least 14.0 innings thrown. Levi Prater is holding opponents to just a .068 batting average off of 22.1 innings while Austin Hansen has only allowed four runs to score in his 19 appearances.
Series Against Oklahoma:
This will mark the 10th time Little Rock will have faced a ranked Oklahoma program. In the previous meetings the Trojans have won three of the nine including a win in 2011 against No. 2 ranked Sooners in 2013 and then sweeping a two game series against a No. 10 ranked Sooners in 2013. Overall, Little Rock has a 6-25 record in the matchup between the two and the last victory came in 2014.
Last Time Out:
The Trojan starting pitching staff had stellar performances over the weekend, but the struggling bats held Little Rock down in two, one-run losses to Georgia Southern.
Chandler Fidel threw seven strong innings Saturday and got a career-high 10 strikeouts and didn't allow a run, but the Eagles got three late runs to win in extra innings 3-2 over the Trojans.
Pablo Ortiz then came in on Sunday and gave up one run in the first, but followed it with five scoreless innings after.
Hayden Arnold came in for Ortiz's relief and threw three more scoreless innings for Little Rock. That one run proved to be enough for the Eagles though as they won 1-0 to sweep the series.
On Deck:
Little Rock will try to end its three game conference skid this upcoming weekend with a three-game series against ULM at
Gary Hogan Field. The Trojans will host the Warhawks in game one on Friday at 6 p.m. followed by a Saturday game at 2 p.m. and the series finale on Sunday at 1 p.m.
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