For the third straight outing, Little Rock's starting pitching put the Trojans in position to win. On Sunday,
Ty Rhoades delivered the decisive blow with a two-run double, and the Little Rock arms made it stand up in a 2-0 victory over Eastern Michigan at Gary Hogan Field.
Zach Busick (1-0) set the tone with five hitless innings, striking out six.
Isaac Evaniew followed with four strikeouts over nearly three innings of relief, and
Jack Cline closed the door to earn the save as the Trojans (2-1) secured the season-opening series win.
"It's great to win the opening weekend series at home. You don't see many shutouts on a Sunday in college baseball," head coach
Chris Curry said. "For these guys to throw a shutout today, we needed it, because offensively we were anemic. The challenge for Zach has been his poise, just staying calm inside that circle and being a guy that doesn't get rattled. Today he didn't get rattled at all."
Busick worked around three walks and twice stranded runners in scoring position with inning-ending strikeouts in the second and fourth. Only four balls left the infield against him, and his fastball consistently sat between 91-94 mph.
"I was a little nervous being the first start of the year. I wanted to throw hard and maintain it. It felt good today," Busick said.
The outing capped an impressive weekend for Little Rock's rotation. Busick, Brennan Westmoreland (Friday), and
Brigden Parker (Saturday) combined for 16 innings, allowing just one run on five hits while striking out 16.
The Trojans provided all the offense they would need in the fourth inning.
Angel Cano singled,
Nico Baumbach doubled, and Rhoades drove both home with a double off the wall in right field.
Eastern Michigan threatened in the eighth, loading the bases, but
Luke Schimmels came up with a clutch strikeout to end the frame. Cline surrendered a leadoff single in the ninth before inducing a double play and striking out the final batter to seal the shutout.
Next Game: Little Rock travels to Memphis Tigers (2-1) on Tuesday for a 4:05 p.m. first pitch at FedExPark Avron Fogelman Field. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
