BATON ROUGE, LA. –
Malcolm Brown was ready to give up college baseball when he walked into Little Rock head coach
Chris Curry's office in the spring.
Brown, a junior from Texarkana, Texas, told Curry he needed to get a job and support his family.
Curry asked him to sit down and talk about it. Curry quizzed him about where he would work and Brown didn't have a good answer. He told Curry he had a little over a year before he earned his degree. Brown told Curry that no members of his family had college degrees.
"I said, 'Well how about let's be the first one to leave a legacy in your family to get a degree so the chances of your children getting a degree and that paying off exponentially,' throughout not only his life but the rest of his family," Curry said. "I'm really glad Malcolm did not hang up baseball early in the year to go to work."
Brown, who has been battling a stomach bug all week, came though big for the Trojans Sunday night. He pitched 5.1 innings giving up just one run and three hits as he tamed the LSU's potent lineup. He even escaped a bases loaded jam. The save was his longest appearance of the season.
"I just go out there and attack, get strike one, fill up the zone, and see what happens," Brown said. 'You got a defense behind you."
Brown was not only happy about upsetting LSU to get the championship game of the Baton Rouge Region, he was also celebrating the first birthday of his son Myles.
Curry said what Brown endured on the mound is nothing compared to some of the setbacks he's dealt with in life.
"I'm proud of him," Curry said. "This is nothing. He's had to deal with some things, and he is probably the toughest kid on our team because of it."
TV Time
For the first time this season, Little Rock will be playing on national television. ESPN2 will televise Little Rock's game with at LSU at 8:06 p.m., Monday. Dave Neal and Ben McDonald are on the call. Most of the games Little Rock has played in this spring have been streamed on ESPN+ including all home games. One of Trojans' games at Arkansas in April was broadcast on SEC Network with former LSU star Todd Walker providing color commentary.
Watch Party
Speaking of TV, the Little Rock Athletic Department is hosting a watch party Monday night.
The event starts at 7:30 p.m., at Waldo's Chicken and Beer at 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road, Ste. B1 in Little Rock. You can RSVP
here.
Cano is simply en fuego
Junior Trojans first baseman
Angel Cano is making a case for the Most Outstanding Player award in the Baton Rouge Region.
Cano was hitting .214 entering the Regional and was 0-for-3 in a 7-0 loss to LSU in the first game. Since then, he has blistered opposing pitching and is hitting .444 during the tournament with 14 RBI. Cano has raised his average to .241. He has homered in his past three games and will look to keep that streak going Monday night in the title game against LSU.
Piling up Runs
Little Rock has scored 75 runs in the postseason. That is more than eight runs per game. That includes 22 runs against Rhode Island. They also scored 10 runs against LSU's standout pitching staff Sunday night and been in double-figures three times.
