MARION, Ill. — Just 24 hours after pitching a shutdown 10th inning in Thursday's win over Eastern Illinois, junior
Brody Bunting threw 121 pitches in a seven-inning gem to pick up the win Friday and put Little Rock into Saturday's OVC championship game with a 4-1 semifinal win over Lindenwood at Mountain Dew Park. The Trojans will face either Eastern Illinois or Lindenwood tomorrow at noon, needing just one win to claim the conference title. Their opponent will need to top Little Rock twice.
Bunting scattered five hits, allowed just one run and struck out six.
Brenden Katz earned the save, throwing the final two hitless frames. Bunting and Katz are the latest heroes during Little Rock's historic run through the tournament, joining
Jackson Wells and
Zach Henry in the opener,
Ty Rhoades and
Cooper Chaplain in the win over SEMO, and then
Ryan Geck and
Sammy Harris in the extra-inning win a day ago.
"As the old baseball saying goes, pitching, defense, and timely hitting wins ball games, and that's exactly what happened today. One of the greatest outings in Little Rock baseball history by Bunting to pitch the Trojans to the championship game. Between Bunting and Katz, that was a heck of a one-two combination. Both guys threw strikes down in the zone, and we played great defense behind him. And then the timely hitting with Geck on a two-out single, Rhodes hitting a single and then the freshman, Cade Martin, sits on a breaking ball and hits a three-run homer. That was the big blow and all that we needed. But I just can't say enough about the resiliency and the way this team is held onto the rope after being in such a dark place, not seven days ago. It's just a testament to their toughness and I'm looking forward to going to battle with them in the dugout tomorrow." – Little Rock head coach Chris Curry
Little Rock (23-32) opened the scoring in the first when Geck hit into a double play that allowed
Alex Seguine to score. With Bunting holding Lindenwood (30-29) hitless for the first three innings, Martin delivered the biggest punch with a three-run bomb to left that made it 4-0 after three. Lindenwood's lone run would come in the fourth frame, but Bunting put the Lions down in order in the fifth and sixth, then worked around a jam in the seventh to strand a pair of runners.
Katz entered with a man on in the eighth and got the Lions to hit into an inning-ending double play, then forced Lindenwood into three consecutive ground ball outs in the ninth. Martin finished the game 3-for-3 at the plate and reached base in all four at-bats. Rhoades and
Kade Goeke each had two hits and the Trojans struck out just four times.
