CONWAY – The University of Central Arkansas softball team narrowly missed defeating its second Power-5 opponent in six days, falling to Southeastern Conference-foe Mississippi State 4-3 Tuesday evening at Farris Field.

UCA (17-17, 4-5 SLC) made a couple of defensive miscues in the fourth inning, allowing the Bulldogs to push across three unearned runs to take the lead. However, the Bears responded back with the tying run in the bottom of the sixth on a pair of MSU errors of their own. Mississippi State (21-10, 1-5 SEC) used a pair of singles in the top of the seventh to push across the go-ahead run and held on for the one-run victory.

NOTABLES
 

• Despite being stuck with the loss, freshman Kamryn Coleman (2-5) was excellent in the circle. She tossed all 7.0 innings and allowed just one earned run while striking out a pair of Bulldog hitters. Coleman is now second on the squad with a 3.00 ERA for the season.
• Fellow freshman Tylar Vernon stepped up big for UCA. Her RBI-double in the second inning gave Central Arkansas an early 1-0 lead. It was Vernon's eighth RBI of the season.
• Middle infielders Libby Morris and Erin Blackburn recorded the only other two hits for the Bears in the contest, both of which were singles.
• One of the nation's top base-stealers Kayla Crutchmer swiped her 26th bag of the season. She remains second in the Southland Conference in that category.

QUOTING HEAD COACH DAVID KUHN

"We had our chances and Kam pitched a great game," Kuhn said. "If we play error free, we win that game. Now granted you can say the same for them, but they just came through with a couple basehits in the seventh that were the difference. I like the direction we are headed in. I feel like for the most part we have this team figured out now so we are looking forward to the weekend."

ON DECK

UCA will put its three-game conference road-winning streak on the line as they travel to Beaumont, Texas for a three-game set at Lamar. First pitch for the opener is set for 4 p.m. For all things UCA Softball follow the program on Twitter @UCASoftball or @UCASports.