Trojans Conclude Home Stand Facing Oral Roberts Wednesday

GAME 15 | ORAL ROBERTS
Date/Time	Wednesday, Mar. 16 - 3 p.m.
Location	Little Rock, Ark.
Field	Gary Hogan Field
Records	Little Rock (10-4, 0-0 SBC) Oral Roberts (10-5, 0-0 Summit)
Watch	ESPN+
Live Stats	TrojanStats.com
Twitter	@LittleRockBSB
Series	Oral Roberts leads, 19-6

LITTLE ROCK – Little Rock closes out its home-heavy start to the 2022 season, facing Oral Roberts in a midweek tilt Wednesday at 3 p.m. The game against the Golden Eagles marks the Trojans' first ESPN+ broadcast of the season at Gary Hogan Field with Tyler Cass handling the play-by-play.
 
Sweeping The Weekend
Little Rock put together an impressive weekend at Gary Hogan Field, sweeping the four-game series against North Alabama to improve to 10-3 on its home field this season. The Trojans outscored the Lions 30-14, batting .307 as a team with a .440 slugging percentage. The Little Rock pitching staff posted a team ERA of 2.47 while the Trojans were effective once again on the base paths, stealing 11 bases on 14 attempts.
 
Bats Coming Alive
Entering this week's games, Little Rock boasts a team batting average of .328, tops in the Sun Belt Conference and 11th nationally. The Trojans have registered 26 doubles on the season, ranking 26th nationally, with a .497 slugging percentage, sitting at 36th in the nation. Six of Little Rock's starters are batting .340 or better, led by Jorden Hussein's .404 average and .400 from Nathan Lyons, sitting fifth and sixth, respectively, in the conference as five Trojans rank among the top-17.
 
Turning Two
Little Rock has made a name for itself defensively turning double plays, ranking 11th nationally with 15 this season and sixth in double plays per game, averaging 1.07. Canyon McWilliams has taken part in 13 of those twin killings, along with 11 for Jorden Hussein and 10 for Eldrige Figueroa. Coupled with the Sun Belt-best 43 in 2021, the Trojans have turned 58 double plays in the last 65 games, averaging 0.89 per game.
 
Bombs Away
Six different Trojans have hit home runs through the first 14 games of 2022, led by five from Noah Dickerson to help bolster his .343 average and .824 slugging percentage, second in the Sun Belt. Jake Wright has added three home runs, with two of those coming from inside the park, with four other Trojans sitting at one. Tyler Williams and Canyon McWilliams each added their first round-trippers of the season over the weekend with Williams notching a grand slam in game three against the Lions, the first for Little Rock since Kenny Rodriguez at Auburn on March 14, nearly one year to the day.
 
Swipe Right
Little Rock has also made its mark on the base path this season as the Trojans have stolen 36 bases on the season, first in the Sun Belt and ninth nationally. The Trojans rank eighth in the country with 2.57 stolen bases per game, paced by 11 from Tyler Williams (15th nationally), 10 from Eldrige Figueroa (20th nationally) and eight from Miguel Soto (48th nationally) as the trio rank first, second and fourth in the Sun Belt.
 
Scouting the Golden Eagles
Oral Roberts heads into the week at 10-5 on the year with a Tuesday evening game scheduled at Central Arkansas before making the trip to Gary Hogan Field. The Golden Eagles fell in a three-game series at second-ranked Ole Miss, but took the final game of the series from the Rebels 8-4, and has series sweeps over Pacific and Saint Louis. As a team, ORU is batting .315, led by Mac McCroskey's .424 average and Justin Quinn hitting .409. The pitching staff has a combined ERA of 4.46 for the Golden Eagles with the opposition batting .247 and a combined 135 strikeouts.
 
Series History
Little Rock and Oral Roberts have met 25 times previously with the Golden Eagles winning 19. The two teams opened the 2021 season with a two-game series in Tulsa, beginning with a 4-3 Little Rock win on opening day followed by a 7-3 Golden Eagles victory in game two. Little Rock is 3-4 against ORU at Gary Hogan Field as the Golden Eagles make their first trip since 2019, a 6-5 Trojan win in 10 innings thanks to a walk-off home run from Riley Pittman.
 
Weather Forecast
Wednesday looks to be a change of pace from recent weeks as temperature at first pitch is slated to be close to 70 degrees with plenty of sunshine.
 
Five Things To Know
 
• Little Rock will play its first midweek home game of the season at Gary Hogan Field, the first of four scheduled this season. The Trojans are 14-7 in midweek home games under head coach Chris Curry and have won six-straight and nine of the last 10.
 
• The game against the Golden Eagles wraps up a home-heavy stretch for Little Rock as the Trojans will have played 14 of their first 15 games at home. It is the most home games in a span since the 18-game home stretch to open the 2010 season as Little Rock is 10-3 on its home turf this season with an overall home record of 97-71 (.614) under head coach Chris Curry.
 
• Junior catcher Jake Wright was named to the Buster Posey Collegiate Catcher of the Year watch list last week and responded in kind by belting his second inside-the-park home run of the season against North Alabama. His other came on Feb. 20 against Eastern Illinois.
 
• Sophomore Chance Vaught is expected to get the start Wednesday night against Oral Roberts. It will be Vaught's first start of the season and the third of his Little Rock career, throwing the first pitch in the Trojans' games against UA-Pine Bluff (Mar. 31) and at Ole Miss (Apr. 20).
 
• Little Rock has been efficient across the board early in the season as the Trojans rank first in the Sun Belt in batting average (.328), slugging percentage (.497) and stolen bases (36) while ranking second in ERA (3.20) and opponent batting average (.207), throwing a Sun Belt-low six wild pitches on the season.
 
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