The UCA baseball Bears (13-11, 3-3 ASUN) came away with their first series win of the year in Atlantic Sun play, taking two of three games from the Bellarmine University Knights (7-16, 2-4 ASUN) at Bear Stadium, March 20-22.
Central Arkansas began the series with a bang on Friday, putting up 10 of a season high 17 runs in the first inning. The Bears held off a hot offensive night of their own from Bellarmine to secure a 17-12 victory to open the weekend set.
Offensively, sophomore infielder Nate Negre hit two home runs, with junior outfielder Zeb Allen and graduate student infielder Jagger Schattle both adding homers of their own in the win.
Junior outfielder Kade Seldomridge went 4-6 with a triple and a pair of RBI’s.
On the mound, graduate student pitcher Silas Cowgill earned the win in relief, giving up 5 earned runs on three hits and three walks across five innings.
Sophomore pitcher Jake Jones was called on in the ninth to slam the door, preventing a run on two hits and a walk in the inning to finish the game for UCA.
Saturday wouldn’t be as kind to the Bears, as the offense only generated three hits and three walks in a 5-2 loss.
Junior pitcher Patrick Fernandez picked up the loss for Central Arkansas, surrendering four runs on six hits and three walks across 3.2 innings pitched.
Allen tripled in the seventh and scored on a sac fly from freshman infielder Landon Carter. Later in the inning, Schattle brought home sophomore infielder Jack Runsick on a single up the middle.
On the mound for the Knights, sophomore pitcher Chase Chamberlain earned the win as he shut down the UCA offense, pitching four perfect innings for Bellarmine including five strikeouts.
With the teams splitting the opening two games, Sunday’s rubber match took on an added intensity for both sides.
The Bears came out flat early, falling behind 7-1 after the top of the sixth due in part to Knights graduate infielder A.J Swader knocking in an RBI in each of his first three at bats.
Feeling the series slipping away, Central Arkansas found its groove offensively as Negre sparked the rally with a double to left center that scored senior infielder Keon Moseni.
A pair of sacrifice flies and an RBI single from Schattle later in the inning closed the deficit to 7-5 in favor of the Knights after six innings of play.
After holding the Knights scoreless in the top of the seventh, junior infielder Parker Gwynn’s double and Moseni’s HBP brought the go ahead run to the plate in Negre.
Negre smashed the first pitch of the at bat beyond the left field wall, capping off seven unanswered runs and putting the Bears ahead 8-7 after the seventh.
After being called on in relief in the fourth inning and struggling early, senior pitcher Hunter Alexander asserted his will late as he retired the final seven batters of the game to earn the win.
Alexander finished with a final line of two earned runs allowed on six hits and no walks, pitching the final 5.2 innings for Central Arkansas.
UCA head coach Nick Harlan shared his thoughts on Alexander’s performance, saying “Hunter was awesome. You know he’s better as he gets closer to the end of the game. I knew if we could get something going [offensively] that he would get into a groove. There was great defensive play behind him, and it was fun to see.”
Harlan called the come from behind win “One of my all-time favorites, honestly. Just an awesome victory at home.”
Moseni also spoke post game about the importance of finding a way to come out on top despite falling behind early.
Moseni said, “It was huge, we really needed that win, especially after last weekend. Going down against Eastern Kentucky in heartbreaking fashion. There’s a lot of parity in our conference right now, and we needed to get that first series win for conference play. It was just a collective effort from all the boys and it was much needed.”
Looking ahead, the Bears make the trip to Fayetteville for a date with the #4 Arkansas Razorbacks on Tuesday, March 23 at 6 P.M, before returning to Conway next weekend to continue ASUN play with a series against the Austin Peay Governors.
All UCA baseball games can be steamed on ESPN+.