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CONWAY, Ark. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears will take a break from conference play on Tuesday when they host the Memphis Tigers at 6 p.m. at Bear Stadium.
The Bears, who wrapped up their third consecutive ASUN series win with a victory over Bellarmine on Sunday in Louisville, will jump right back into league play on Thursday against Lipscomb in Nashville, Tenn.
This will be the first meeting this season between the Bears (14-20, 8-7) and Tigers (14-21, 3-9) after the first matchup in Memphis, scheduled for March 4 in Memphis, was postponed until May 13 due to weather.
The Tigers are coached by Matt Riser, the former head coach at Southeastern Louisiana, who is familiar with playing at Bear Stadium when the Bears and Lions were both members of the Southland Conference. The Tigers are coming off an American Athletic Conference series win over Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton, Fla. Memphis has losses to Ole Miss, Mississippi State, East Carolina and ASUN member Lipscomb this season.
The Bears, who started 1-5 in ASUN play, have gone 7-2 since, beating Bellarmine 10-5 and 10-7 and losing to the Knights 1-0 in 11 innings on the road last weekend.
UCA is ranked No. 2 in batting average in the conference with a .285 average, and is second in defense with a .974 fielding percentage.
Sophomore left fielder
Zeb Allen from Fort Smith, Ark., had four home runs last week, including three in a game against Lipscomb. He has a team-high eight homers for the season through 34 games, which would have tied
Drew Sturgeon and
Casey Shipley for the season high a year ago.Â
Memphis leads the overall series 12-5, including a 14-4 victory last season on an extremely windy day in Memphis, which saw nine home runs, including homers by Allen and Sturgeon.
UCA's weekend series at Lipscomb will be played Thursday-Saturday because of Eastern Sunday. Game times in Nashville are 6 p.m. Thursday, 2 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday at Dugan Field.
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