The UCA baseball team fell to the Evansville University Purple Aces in the last game of its three-game series 8-0, March 9.
The third game’s result secured the Purple Aces the win of the three-game series.
This loss came after an 11-10 win for the Bears (5-8) on Friday and a 6-5 loss on Saturday to their Mid-American Conference opponent.
UCA baseball coach Nick Harlan said he thought the Bears had a chance to win the series after their game one victory.
“I thought we had a chance to win the series yesterday,” Harlan said. “There was a small margin for error and we made a couple of mistakes late on the mound that cost us.”
UCA freshman right-handed pitcher Aden Velasquez and the Bears’ defense had a strong first inning, not allowing any runs and leaving no runners past second base.
However, with the Bears also having a slow first inning, the Purple Aces (5-9) capitalized in the second, scoring 2 runs, which were batted in by senior outfielder Ty Rumsey.
Evansville continued their momentum into the third inning with another 2 runs after the Bears were again unable to score in the bottom of the second.
After Velasquez was swapped with junior right-handed pitcher Gavin Alveti in the third inning, Evansville sophomore outfielder Charlie Longmeier hit a run batted in, which was scored by freshman infielder Drew McConnell.
Sophomore outfielder Aaron Nehls then singled to left field, which allowed Longmeier to score after running from second base. The score stood at 4-0 after the third inning.
UCA looked to be gaining some momentum in the bottom of the third inning after senior catcher Casey Shipley reached first base on a fielding error.
Sophomore outfielder Zeb Allen was able to make it to first base on another fielding error by Evansville’s defense.
However, the Bears were still unable to score, and Shipley and Allen were left on base at the end of the third inning.
The next two innings saw no scores from either team, though UCA had a hit from Allen to leave two players on base at the end of the fifth inning.
However, the Purple Aces hammered home in the sixth inning, scoring the last 4 runs of the game.
Rumsey singled through the right side, batting 2 more runs in for the Purple Aces, which were scored by Nehls and redshirt junior infielder Kevin McCormick.
Senior outfielder Harrison Taubert then batted another run in for Evansville, which was scored by freshman infielder Mason McCue.
Rumsey scored the last run of the game off a hit from McConnell to bring the game to the final score of 8-0.
Evansville’s starting pitcher, sophomore left-handed pitcher Kevin Reed, pitched for seven innings, facing 29 batters and finishing the game with six strikeouts and 100 total pitches.
“We had some arms available, and to [Evansville’s] credit, their left-handed pitcher, he did a really nice job today,” Harlan said. “He established a fastball with a lot of conviction, confidence, and got ahead in the count, and kind of expanded the strike zone, and we had a hard time.”
The Bears used six pitchers throughout Sunday’s game, which included senior Perry Titlow, junior Bryce Parlin, freshman Luke Lorence and senior Jackson Schwank in addition to Velasquez and Alveti.
“We just didn’t find a lot of barrels today, which is uncharacteristic of our offense,” Harlan said. “We’re a really good offense, and we just didn’t show that today.”
The Bears will hit the road to play a three-game series against the University of North Alabama Lions, with games March 14-16 in Birmingham, Alabama, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.