Little Rock Travels to Morehead State for Pivotal Final Series

GAMES 50-52 | Morehead State
Dates/Times	Thursday, May 18 - 5 p.m. ET Friday, May 19 - 5 p.m. ET Saturday, May 20 - 1 p.m. ET
Location	Morehead, Ky.
Field	Allen Field
Records	Little Rock (30-19, 14-6 OVC) Morehead State (32-19, 14-7 OVC)
Watch	Thursday | Friday | Saturday
Live Stats	StatBroadcast Thursday | Friday | Saturday
Twitter	@LittleRockBSB
Series	N/A

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Little Rock will hit the road headed for Morehead, Kentucky for the final weekend series of the regular season in a Thursday through Saturday three game set against Morehead State. The Trojans an Eagles make up two of the top three teams in the OVC with Little Rock leading the field by half a game, making this a series with massive standings implications.
 
Last Time Out
On Tuesday the Trojans played the season series finale against in-state rival Central Arkansas and were looking to sweep the series after winning in both Little Rock and Conway earlier this season. Little Rock was able to score early and eventually pulled away late in an 8-3 win at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock. This was the first time the Trojans had played in NLR at Dickey-Stephens since 2019 and are now 5-1 against UCA all-time in games played across the river. Each team scored two runs in the first inning, and it stayed that way until the bottom of the third when the Trojans took the lead for good with a pair of runs to double up. Little Rock would add one in the bottom of the fifth and three in the eighth to reach the final score of 8-3. Luke Pectol and Nico Baumbach shared the lead in hits in the game with three each and totaled four RBI together. The first four batters of the Little Rock lineup went 10-17, driving in six of seven RBI and scoring seven of the eight runs. Freshman Malcolm Brown earned the win, pitching three innings out of the pen, scattering five hits, and allowing one run while striking out two. Erik McKnight got the save with three strikeouts and no runs or hits over the last two innings, he also escaped a jam in the eighth where the tying run was on base with no one out. The win improved Little Rock to 30-19 on the year, the first time a Trojan team has won 30 games since the 2003 season.
 
Scouting the Eagles
Morehead State enters the series with an overall record of 32-19 and an OVC record of 14-7, half a game behind the Trojans and in second place due to having the tiebreaker over Southeast Missouri. The Eagles are currently on a one game losing streak, having lost to SIUE in game two of a doubleheader last Saturday on the road. Prior to that loss, Morehead State was a winner in four straight including a midweek win over new Sun Belt Member Marshall at home. Morehead shows many similarities to the Tennessee Tech team that the Trojans faced off against last weekend. The Eagles swing for a lot of power, leading the conference in homeruns and total bases, but also lead the league in times struck out by a significant margin. On the mound, Morehead has a team ERA of 6.09, good for fourth in the conference in a hitter friendly home ballpark. Ryley Preece has had a great year for the Eagles, hitting .335 on the year with an OPS of 1.189 and 19 homeruns. The junior outfielder has also stolen 20 bases on 27 attempts this season. Luke Helton has had a good year on the mound for MSU, pitching to an ERA of 5.76 across 65.2 innings pitched and has struck out 61 to just 27 walks.
 
Series History
This will be the first time that the Trojans and Eagles of Morehead State will meet each other on the diamond.
 
Three Things to Know:

• Tuesday's win marked the 30^th of the season for Little Rock, becoming the first team to do so since 2003. The all-time win total in a season for the Trojans is 33 games, which has occurred just twice last coming in the year 2000 when the team went 33-23.
• Nico Baumbach (.370) and Tyler Williams (.363) still hold the top two spots in the OVC in batting average with Luke Pectol (.357) not far behind in fourth, trailing third place Jared Evans (.358) of Eastern Illinois by just one point.
• The Trojans will participate in their first ever Ohio Valley Conference Tournament next week in Marion, Illinois at Mountain Dew Ballpark, with the results of this series playing heavily in determining the seed they will take. Little Rock can finish no lower than third in the conference and are guaranteed a top two finish with a series win. The only way to guarantee a regular season OVC championship is to win all three games. However, two wins and a Southeast Missouri loss to Eastern Illinois at any point this weekend would also put the Trojans in first.

For the latest information on Little Rock Baseball, make sure to check out LRTrojans.com. You can also find the team on social media at @LittleRockBSB on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
 
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