Little Rock jumped ahead early in Sunday's series finale against Murray State, but was unable to hold on to its lead and allowed three ninth-inning runs in a 6-4 loss to the Racers, who swept the series at Gary Hogan Field. The Trojans (5-6) opened up a 4-1 lead after five innings but were held without a hit over the last four, allowing Murray State (7-0) to chip away at its deficit before eventually taking the lead for good in the final stanza.
"That's [Murray State] an outstanding ball club and one of, if not the most, talented lineups we'll see all season. It's full of mature hitters and they did what mature hitters do, hitting with two strikes, and a lot of their hits came with two outs. We finally played in front with the lead, but then went 12 outs in a row with only one walk. We've got to do a better job offensively to add on and put teams away. I was proud of the way they responded today, but we didn't finish." — Little Rock head coach Chris Curry
Little Rock opened the scoring in the second as
Angel Cano walked and later scored on
Cade Martin's sacrifice fly, the first collegiate RBI for the true freshman from Texarkana, Texas, making his first NCAA start. The Trojans added a run in the third, getting a triple off the wall from
Zach Henry – his second three-bagger of the year – and the senior scoring on Cano's single into left for a 2-0 lead.
Murray State was hitless until the fourth inning, when they finally pushed a run across, but the Trojans responded with a pair of runs in the fifth to go ahead 4-1.
Cooper Chaplain walked,
Ryan Geck singled and Cano scored them both on a double to deep left for his second run-scoring hit of the day. Unfortunately for Little Rock, Cano's fifth-inning hit was the Trojans' last of the afternoon.
The Racers scored one run in the sixth, cut the lead to 4-3 with another run in the seventh, and then tied the game on a lead-off homer in the ninth. A two-run triple later in the inning proved to be the difference for the final of 6-4. Cano finished 2-for-3 with a double, walk and three RBIs to lead the Trojans at the plate.
Jack Cline started and went 5.2 innings for Little Rock, allowing just five hits, two runs and two walks while striking out four.
Preston Davis was tagged with the loss after giving up the game-tying homer in the ninth and being responsible for the winning run. Dylan Zentko earned the win for Murray State with a five-inning relief outing that included seven strikeouts.
Little Rock is scheduled to play at Arkansas State on Tuesday and Memphis the following afternoon before returning home to host Belmont for a weekend series March 7-9.
