CONWAY, Ark. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears celebrated Senior Day on Saturday by completing the Southland Conference sweep of league-leader Southeastern Louisiana with a 3-2 victory at Bear Stadium.

    The Bears (28-25, 16-14) entered the weekend sitting in eighth place in the SLC standings, needing at least one victory to assure themselves a spot in the postseason tournament. With the three victories, UCA jumped up to the fifth seed in next week's SLC Tournament and will face the fourth-seeded Lamar Cardinals at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Constellation Field in Sugar Land, Texas.

    UCA, which swept SLU for the first time since joining the league in 2007, scored single runs in the second, third and fourth innings, then got two shut down innings from senior right hander Connor McClain of Conway. Sophomore starter Tyler Gray (6-1) tossed five innings, striking out eight and allowing just one run. 

    After the Lions (36-18, 22-8) put up a run in the top of the second inning, UCA senior Brandon Montalvo led off with a single to left center and moved to second on senior Matt Anderson's sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the inning. Montalvo then stole third base and scored on Justin McCarty's base hit to center field for a 1-0 lead. Anderson had an RBI single to left field in the third that plated senior Chris Townsend to make it 2-0.

    In the fourth, senior third baseman Logan Preston led off with a double to right center and scored on freshman William Hancock's ground ball up the middle.

 

    The Lions, who have lost five of their last six games after leading the SLC the entire season, closed the gap to 3-2 in the seventh inning on a double by Jameson Fisher, the leading hitter in the country, who finished 3 for 4. But Carson Crites hit a two-out ground ball to Preston at third and he chased Jameson back toward second and tagged him for the third out.

    McClain, who earned his sixth career save and first of the season, set the Lions down in order in the eighth and ninth innings to hand SLU its first conference sweep since April 2014.

    UCA, the 2013 SLC champion as the seventh seed and runnerup in 2014 as the No. 6 seed, finished with nine hits, led by Montalvo, who was 3 for 4 and Anderson, who was 2 for 3. SLU starter Dominick Carlini lasted just three innings and lost for just the second time this season (6-2). 

    The Bears have now won four consecutive games and 10 of their last 12 to close the regular season. Lamar is coming off a three-game sweep of Stephen F. Austin in its final series.

    Tickets for the SLC Tournament are available at southland.org or https://www.ticketreturn.com/prod2/team.asp?SponsorID=8656#.V0DWrPkrLDd