CONWAY – On an extremely cold night at Bear Stadium, the University of Central Arkansas baseball squad failed to capitalize on some golden opportunities as the Bears left 17 on base in its 9-6 loss to Arkansas State, Tuesday.
UCA (4-9) outhit the Red Wolves 13-6 in the contest, but it was the visitors who picked up both timely and hitting and pitching en route to victory. Arkansas State (8-5) escaped three different bases loaded situations to allude a potent Bears offensive attack.
NOTABLES
- Beau Orlando had a very productive day at the plate for UCA. He picked up two RBIs on a 2-4 day while also scoring a run of his own.
- Brad Verel (0-1) was the one of eight pitchers used by UCA that picked up the loss. On a bullpen day, Logan Gilbertson, Gavin Heltemes, Ty Callahan, Matthew Patton, Gavin Stone, Zach Smith and Conner Williams all appeared in the contest.
- Second baseman Jay Anderson was solid against the Red Wolves. He went 2-3 with an RBI-single in the eighth and also one walk.
- Tyler Smith and Joshmar Doran picked up the other two RBIs for the Bears.
- While Arkansas State was greatly outhit in the matchup, five of its six hits were extra-base knocks with two of them being home runs. The game-changing hit was a timely grand slam in the sixth inning by Red Wolves catcher Justin Felix.
- Zachary Patterson (2-0) was one of three pitchers to get out of a bases-loaded jam for ASU and picked up the victory. Kollin Stone recorded his fourth save of the season for the Red Wolves.
ON DECK
The baseball Bears will open up Southland Conference play with a three-game set in Hammond, La. against Southeastern Louisiana. The series begins Friday at 6 p.m. and continues Saturday with a 2 p.m. start time and Sunday with a 1 p.m. first pitch.
