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CONWAY, Ark. _ For the first time since March 14, the University of Central Arkansas Bears will play at home at Bear Stadium, beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday when the Bears host the Sam Houston Bearkats.

The Bears (9-12, 6-6) survived a 10-game road swing, ending with a loss at No. 1 Arkansas on Tuesday night. When this weekend's series finishes up at 1 p.m. Saturday, the Bears will have played nine games in nine days, due to the four-game Southland Conference series this season.

The Bears and Bearkats will also play a doubleheader at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The Bears and Bearkats will be meeting for the 43rd time Thursday with the series deadlocked at 21-21. UCA, however, has a 16-7 record at Bear Stadium. The teams have also met three times in the Southland Conference Tournament in Sugar Land, Texas, with SHSU winning all three, including the 2017 championship game. 

In the last series between the teams back in 2019, UCA won all three matchups at Bear Stadium. The series was dominated by pitching, with neither team hitting above .200. UCA had the best weekend on the mound with a 1.33 earned-run average, compared to a 5.62 for SHSU. There were only a combined nine extra-base hits in the three games.
 
UCA split last weekend's series at UIW in San Antonio, winning the first and last games and dropping both games of the Saturday doubleheader. The Bears have split all three of their SLC series this season.

Sam Houston was swept by Southeastern Louisiana in its first SLC series, then split with Northwestern State and won three of four games against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last weekend in Huntsville, Texas, including a13-2 run-rule decision in Game 1. SHSU did not play a mid-week game this week.

The Bearkats have two players hitting better than .300. Junior Jack Rogers is hitting .347 and All-American sophomore Colton Cowser is at .342. They rank sixth and eighth among SLC leaders. 

UCA is led by senior first baseman Colby Potvin, who is hitting .346, and junior right fielder Connor Emmet, who is hitting .298. Emmet led off the game at Arkansas on Tuesday with an opposite-field home run off starter Kole Ramage, his third home run in his last five games. Emmet, UCA's leading hitter in last year's shortened season, has raised his batting average by 50 points in the past two weeks.

The Bears are expected to start senior Connor Williams on Friday, senior Mark Moyer in Game 1 Saturday and junior Logan Gilbertson in Sunday's finale.  SHSU counters with right hander Tyler Davis in Game 1, left hander Dominic Robinson in Game 2 and lefty Matt Dillard in Game 3. UCA has not named a starter for Saturday's second game and SHSU has not named one for Sunday's game.

The games can be heard live on The Bear 91.3, with live streaming at ucasports.com/watch.