LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – With Ohio Valley Conference Tournament positioning still to be determined, Little Rock enters the final weekend of the regular season with plenty on the line as the Trojans host Southeast Missouri for a pivotal three-game series beginning Thursday night at Gary Hogan Field.
Little Rock (30-22, 16-8 OVC) sits in second place in the league standings, two games behind conference leader SIUE Cougars and one game ahead of both Southeast Missouri State Redhawks and Eastern Illinois Panthers entering the regular season's final weekend. The Trojans hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over Eastern Illinois after sweeping the Panthers earlier this season.
The series begins Thursday at 6 p.m., continues Friday at 4 p.m. and concludes Saturday at 1 p.m. The OVC Tournament begins Tuesday at Mountain Dew Park, with tournament seeding to be finalized Saturday afternoon.
Saturday will also serve as Senior Day for the Trojans, who will honor 14 seniors prior to first pitch.
Little Rock will additionally host a Summer Cereal Drive benefiting the Arkansas Foodbank throughout the weekend. The first 20 fans donating cereal Thursday will receive a signed baseball card from head coach
Chris Curry. The first 200 fans Thursday will receive a three-pack of player cards, while Friday's giveaway includes four-pack player cards.
GAME INFORMATION
Who: Southeast Missouri State Redhawks at Little Rock Trojans
When: Thursday 6 p.m. | Friday 4 p.m. | Saturday 1 p.m.
Where: Gary Hogan Field
Video: ESPN+
Radio: 106.7 Buz2 (Saturday)
Live Stats: lrtrojans.com
SERIES HISTORY
•SEMO leads the all-time series 13-6.
TROJAN TIDBITS
•Little Rock ranks No. 42 nationally in hits and third in the OVC offensively.
•The Trojans lead the OVC in hits allowed per nine innings and rank No. 52 nationally in the category.
•Little Rock has reached the 30-win mark for the third time in four seasons.
•The Trojans are three wins shy of tying the program single-season wins record of 33 set in both 1990 and 2000.
•Little Rock blasted a program-record nine home runs in last Friday's win over UT Martin Skyhawks before piling up 22 hits in Saturday's victory.
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Nico Baumbach ranks third on the program's all-time RBI list with 120 career RBI and needs five home runs to tie the school record of 30.
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Angel Cano hit three home runs during the UT Martin series, including two Friday night and the go-ahead homer in the ninth inning Sunday. He now has 10 on the season.
SCOUTING THE REDHAWKS
•SEMO enters the weekend on a four-game winning streak after sweeping Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles and defeating Austin Peay Governors in midweek action.
•The Redhawks outscored USI 27-12 during the sweep.
•SEMO is four wins away from tying the program record for victories in a season.
•The Redhawks lead the OVC with 255 walks this season and rank among the nation's leaders in free passes drawn.
•Joe Hall enters the weekend batting .358 with 11 home runs and 49 RBI.
•Cal Sullivan ranks second in the OVC with 38 walks.
•Caleb Klein has been hit by 19 pitches this season, second-most in SEMO single-season history.
•Ryan Lopetegui hit his second grand slam of the season last weekend and has seven home runs on the year.
•SEMO has hit four grand slams this season, including two from Hall.
•ight-hander Nathan Mertens leads the nation in strikeout-to-walk ratio at 16.67 with 50 strikeouts and only three walks allowed in 57 innings.
