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CONWAY, Ark. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears return home to Bear Stadium on Friday night in a tie for first place in the ASUN West Division.

    The Bears, who sit in first place along with the Lipscomb Bisons, will host the Bellarmine Knights (7-29, 5-10) for a three-game series beginning at 6 p.m. Friday to begin the second half of the conference schedule. UCA (16-19, 10-5) took two of three games from Bellarmine back in Louisville, Ky., back in March to open their first season in the ASUN.

    The Bears have won all five of their league series 2-1 so far, including last weekend's series win at Eastern Kentucky. The Knights, under ninth-year head coach Larry Owens, have won just one ASUN series, but it was a sweep of North Alabama at home on April 9-10. Since then, Bellarmine has gone 1-4, with the win at Jacksonville State last weekend. Two of those losses were to SEC teams, at Kentucky (11-1) and at No. 1 Tennessee (9-3) on Tuesday.

    In the first series with the Knights, UCA had a .355 batting average and held Bellarmine to just .265. UCA's earned-run average for the three games was 5.54 compared to 8.67 for Bellarmine. Junior right hander Andrew Shoultz won both games in relief as UCA's pitching staff combined for 28 strikeouts. UCA lost the opener 4-2 but then won the next two games 15-9 and 10-6.

    The Bears enter the weekend having lost two straight, to EKU in the series finale last Sunday (8-6) in Richmond, Ky., and to Memphis (3-1) on Tuesday night at Bear Stadium.

    UCA hit .305, including seven home runs, in last weekend's series at EKU. Senior left fielder Connor Emmet pushed his team lead in home runs to 10 with four on the weekend, while junior first baseman Hunter Hicks added two more and redshirt freshman second baseman Tanner Leonard hit his first home run.

    The Bears' rotation for the weekend will be sophomore right hander Tyler Cleveland, sophomore right hander Jesse Barker and junior right hander Cade Fenton. Bellarmine will counter with right hander Drew Buhr on Friday, right hander Nolan Pender on Saturday and left hander Gavin Braunecker in Sunday's finale.

    UCA will play 15 more ASUN games before the postseason tournament begins on May 25 in Fort Myers, Fla., hosted by Florida Gulf Coast.