TOURNAMENT CENTRAL

SUGAR LAND, Texas _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears have returned to the Southland Conference Baseball Tournament for an eighth consecutive season. No surprise there.

But to do it with 21 new players and just one returning everyday starter from 2018, that's the impressive part. Credit has to go to head coach Allen Gum and his coaching staff for pulling together a near-miss run at a regular-season championship with so many new faces.

Gum's teams have advanced to the SLC Tournament in all but his first season at UCA. Along the way, the Bears have won one tournament title (2013) and finished as runnerup two other times. The Bears enter this year's tournament _ which begins Wednesday at Constellation Field _ as the No. 2 seed in the eight-team field, the highest since becoming eligible for the tourney in 2011.

The Bears (29-25, 19-11) will face No. 7 Northwestern State at noon Wednesday. The Demons (30-23, 15-15) are the defending tournament champions. The teams will be meeting for the first time this season and the 38th overall. In their only career meeting in Sugar Land, UCA beat NSU 5-4 in 2015.

"It's hard, there's no doubt about that,' Gum said about the eight consecutive tournament berths. "It takes continually stressing the fundamentals of the game and just sticking to them. And then just having some tough guys who have some grit and desire to get here, because it's hard. 

"Every year there are teams that don't make it that are really good baseball teams. In our league, there are always good teams left out. It's really just having a really good system and sticking to it.'

Gum's system has been good enough to put him in the 500-victory club, encompassing his career at his alma mater Southern Arkansas and at UCA.This year's group of Bears epitomized what Gum and his coaching staff preach daily _ mental toughness.

"They have a knack to find a way to win,' said Gum, whose Bears won eight of their 10 conference series and set a program record with 19 SLC victories. "When we got into conference play, our guys just found a way to win, over and over and over. Even the losses, I think we lost eight or nine one-run games. They just find a way to stay in games, No. 1, and then they find a way to win a ballgame. They're just some gritty guys and they have that mentality. They just keep playing, and that's a credit to those guys.

"Because I don't think by any stretch are we the most talented team. But they figure out ways to win baseball games. And tournament time, you have to have some tough guys, some gritty guys. Like I told them yesterday, each game we'll face adversity, so we have to have guys that know how to get through it for a nine-inning game. When there's something there that doesn't go right, can we contain it, control it and just keep moving on and not let it affect us. And that's what these guys have done all year in the conference.'

UCA's pitching staff has been as good as any in the SLC, with two strong All-Conference starters on the front end in senior Cody Davenport (6-4, 2,19 earned-run avearge) and freshman Noah Cameron (6-1, 2.53), combined with a pair of solid relievers on the back end in Conner Williams and Gavin Stone. Sprinkle in a group of situational pitchers and a few up-and-coming arms and you have one of UCA's top staffs in recent history. The Bears' ERA is second in the league overall at 3.57 and first in league games at a stingy 2.76.

"It's coach (Nick) Harlan just keeping them on track,' said Gum, "keeping their bodies healthy and sustaining that throughout the season. And that's hard to do sometimes. The biggest thing has been to get them to play their role, and do that well. I think the players have done that and Coach Harlan gave them a great plan and they stuck to it and pitched to their strengths. That's really been our whole thing this year. We've stuck with our pitchers' strengths and gone from there.

"And a big key has been having Friday and Saturday guys who were consistent every week. That was really, really big. Those two guys have been really good. And on the back end, (Gavin) Stone and (Conner) Williams were really consistent all year long. So it was consistency in the pitching staff that got us where we are.'

The league race was as wide-open as it has been in recent memory, and so should the tournament. Four teams entered the final weekend of regular-season play with a chance to win the title. Sam Houston State finished on top with a 20-10 mark, followed by UCA and Southeastern Louisiana at 19-11, and Incarnate Word at 18-12. UCA, which took two of three games at Lamar on the final weekend, could have tied for the championship and been the No. 1 seed with a sweep. UCA swept SHSU at home during the regular season and beat SLU two out of three in Hammond, La.

"It was interesting for sure,' said Gum. "You look at it and we were an extra-inning, one-run game away from winning the regular-season championship last weekend. And we had four teams that could have won it going into the last weekend. And I think two weeks before the season ended, nobody was even guaranteed (of being) in. It's just a credit to our league, the parity in our league is tremendous. A lot of good coaches and a lot of good teams.'

The Demons are certainly one of those. They finished 15-15 in league play with the fifth-best pitching staff (4.42 ERA) and fourth-best defensive squad (.976 fielding percentage). UCA did not play NSU or New Orleans during the regular season. Their last matchup with the Demons was during the 2018 regular season when UCA won two of three games at Bear Stadium in Conway.

"We kind of know a little bit about them because they have a lot of returners,' said Gum. "So we kind of know what to expect. They're going to be a good team, good pitching. You're looking at a power arm in their No. 1 starter (Nathan Jones). 

"I would have rather seen them during the year. You can get a feel how they play, their style and everything like that. But of course, they didn't get to see us either. But if I had my choice, I'd rather have played them.'

Gum and his staff were not even familiar with their own team heading into the season, with 20-plus newcomers and just one returning position starter. But as they always do, they found a way to make it back to Sugar Land, and this time as a No. 2 seed.

"I'm proud of our guys, especially the way we started out this year,' said Gum. "I think when they learned who they were, and we the coaches learned who they were in a sense, that we became a pretty good team. When they became the best version of who they were. And that was the only way we had a chance, I really believe, because early in the year we had no identity. And that's normal with just one returning starter in the field.

"So I'm proud of how far we've come, especially considering all the starters we lost from last year. A lot of new guys, a lot of new faces, and they stepped up and did really well. It's been a tremendous effort on their part.'