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CONWAY, Ark. _ With the "Governor's I-40 Showdown" title already wrapped up, the University of Central Arkansas Bears will instead try to avenge an early-March loss on Tuesday night when they host the Little Rock Trojans in Round 2 at Bear Stadium.

The Bears and Trojans will meet at 6 p.m. in the final baseball matchup of the season, and the final scoring event in the Showdown, which is sponsored by Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield. UCA leads Little Rock 20-15 with three available points remaining on Tuesday night. UCA easily won the inaugural competition in 2018-19, with no winner last year due to the pandemic-shortened season.

The Trojans (15-13, 6-3 Sun Belt) beat the Bears (9-16, 6-10 Southland Conference) 5-3 back on March 3 at Gary Hogan Field in Little Rock. UCA jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the third inning but Little Rock scored five in the fourth and stymied UCA's ninth-inning rally that closed the gap to 5-3.

UCA senior first baseman Coby Potvin led the Bears, going 3 for 5 at the plate. Freshman designated hitter Conner Flagg also had a pair of hits. Three Trojans had two hits apiece, including a three-run home run by Nathan Lyons in the fourth inning.

The Bears have been off since April 3 due to a covid issue, postponing a road game at Arkansas State last Tuesday and canceling a three-game series with Top 25 Oklahoma State last weekend in Stillwater. Little Rock is coming off a three-game home sweep of South Alabama last weekend, which followed a five-game losing streak.

UCA is coming off four consecutive losses to Sam Houston, the preseason favorite in the SLC, in which the Bears hit just .160 and scored just seven runs. The Bears had split their first three conference series and stood 6-6 entering the SHSU series.

Little Rock is hitting .274 as a team compared to .239 for UCA. The Bears have a team earned run average of 6.19 compared to 5.12 for the Trojans. Little Rock's leading hitter is senior second baseman Jorden Hussein at .363. He is one of four hitting above. 300 for the Trojans, who have hit 22 home runs in 28 games. UCA is led by Potvin at .338, but he is the only Bear hitting better than. 300. Junior right fielder Connor Emmet has a team-high three of UCA's nine home runs.

UCA is expected to start freshman right hander Tate Busey of Pea Ridge, Ark., on the mound Tuesday. Busey, 0-1 with a 3.97 ERA, will be starting his third career game. He will be opposed by Little Rock sophomore Luke Wallner (0-0, 1,12 ERA), making his first start of the season.

The Bears will hit the road this weekend for another long road trip for an SLC series at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Game times are 6 p.m. Friday, 1:30 and 5:30 on Saturday and 11 a.m. on Sunday.