Brannon Westmoreland delivered his second quality start in as many outings Friday, and
Kade Smith and
Cooper Chaplain provided the power at the plate as Little Rock held off a feisty West Georgia squad, 6-5, in the opener of a three-game weekend series at Gary Hogan Field.
"I'll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day. Good teams find ways to win games that don't go the way you script them," head coach
Chris Curry said. "One thing we did script was another quality start, and we got that out of Brannon again. He worked out of a couple of jams and kept his pitch count low, which was key."
Westmoreland tossed six innings, allowing just two hits and one run while striking out six. He exited with a 2-1 lead after Smith tripled into right-center field in the third inning to break a scoreless tie.
The visiting Wolves (1-5) tied the game in the seventh, but for the second straight game, Chaplain delivered a three-run homer to right field to put the Trojans (4-1) ahead for good.
"Cooper had another big swing. It was huge because they had just responded in the seventh," Curry said. "Their pitcher kept us off balance and did a fantastic job. It got a little hairy in the ninth when we tried to match up, but I'm really proud of
Brett Gastman. He came in and threw four sliders to get the punchout in a huge moment for his first appearance for Little Rock."
West Georgia added two runs in the ninth to pull within one and had runners on the corners with two outs when Gastman entered for his first appearance in a Little Rock uniform. After opening with a ball, he fired three consecutive strikes to earn the save and preserve the Trojans' third straight victory.
Isaac Evaniew (1-0) earned the win with 1.2 innings of relief.
Cade Martin went 3-for-3 at the plate, and
Ty Rhoades added a run-scoring double in the eighth, moving into a tie for third in program history in career RBIs.
The series continues Saturday at 2 p.m.
Â
Â
