Total team effort leads to 69-58 win

The Sugar Bears took another step toward finishing the season with a .500 record on Thursday night. All eight players who entered the game put points on the board, and that led to a 69-58 win over Southeastern Louisiana at the Farris Center.



“This was a complete team effort. It seemed like everything was clicking and we were hitting on all cylinders,” UCA head coach Checola Seals-Horton said.



SELA missed its first three shots, allowing UCA to put the first points on the board. The Sugar Bears then forced two turnovers and Mariesha Piggee made the most of the second, burying the first of her three 3-pointers to put UCA up 5-0.



And they would never look back. The Lady Lions never gained the lead throughout the entire game.



SELA shot an impressive 47 percent in the first half, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Sugar Bears shooting 6-for-15 from outside the arc. UCA took a 33-31 lead into halftime.



Before the Lady Lions even made their first shot of the second half, the Sugar Bears scored eight and expanded the lead to ten. Caronica Randle started the half by scoring five points in the first 33 seconds. Piggee followed with her third 3-pointer, making all three of her attempts.



The Sugar Bears went on a dry spell for the next 6:16. They missed their next 6 shots and mixed in three turnovers, and found themselves with only a two-point lead, 41-39.



But UCA responded and with just under four minutes remaining, the Sugar Bears had built a 14 point lead, 59-45, with consistent play on both ends of the floor.



SELA’s Brooke Necaise cut it to nine after she was fouled shooting a three and made all three free throws.



After a Randle free throw, the Lady Lions tried to cut it to eight, but Meaghen Kelleybrew had a nice block on a Kristy Carlin shot. Randle retrieved the ball, and the Sugar Bears made 9-of-10 free throws to close out the game.



“When you’ve got balanced scoring and rebounding and it’s not all on Caronica, and everybody’s contributing – it makes for a great win,” Seals-Horton said.



The UCA defense in the second half forced SELA to shoot just 25 percent from the floor. For the game, the Lady Lions made just 2-of-14 shots from outside. The Sugar Bears countered by shooting 42 percent.



The Sugar Bears have two more games remaining before the season ends. A win on senior night Saturday against Nichols State would put them one game away from finishing their first season as a Division I program with a .500 mark.

14 free passes help Bears score 14

Unlike any game I’ve ever seen on any level, a college team – in this case Arkansas State University – hit eight Central Arkansas hitters with errant pitches. Two players were even hit twice. Add four walks and 14 hits and you’ve got a comfortable 14-5 win for the Bears on Tuesday afternoon at UCA Field.

Everyone has seen hitters get hit by pitches before, but the sixth inning saw four Bear batters reach base by HBP. Then in the bottom of the seventh, three more.

The ASU pitching staff struggled to find the strikezone. Even worse news for the Indians is that when they did find it, UCA usually hit it somewhere pretty hard.

Grant Gatlin and Chris Houk led UCA with three hits each. In all, 10 Bears got hits in the game.

The performances on the mound by the UCA pitchers were also good to see. Starter Matt Whitaker, who transferred from ASU, saw his first action of the season and after a rocky first inning got in a groove. Whitaker retired the next eight batters in order after giving up one run in the first. He gave up an unearned run in the fourth and was pulled after 56 pitches.

Bobby Pritchett and Jeremy Brewer combined for just three hits and one run in the next four innings. Pritchett was credited with the win.

Closer Josh Charette gave up two doubles and a walk in the ninth. ASU added its final two runs to set the final margin, and Charette ended the game by snagging a linedrive back at him – one of those self-defense catches.

The Bears had four players with extra base hits. Gatlin, Matt Warren and Jonathan Ashworth all had homeruns, and Tye Throneberry hit a triple in his only atbat of the game.

Leading 3-2, Ashworth started the fourth with a solo homerun. The Bears took advantage of just four hits to score five runs. Helping them along the way were a error and a wild pitch.

The four-run seventh was just the icing on the 10-3 cake. Warren and Gatlin sandwiched the third error by an ASU shortstop with their homers. Throneberry’s triple plated Houk who reached after being hit by a pitch. Houk finished 3-for-4, scored one run and had one RBI.

Able to avoid the sweep

Avoiding the series sweep, the Bears played their first home game as a Division I squad and finally put together a game with good pitching and good hitting. The result was a 9-4 win over UALR Sunday afternoon.

Starting pitcher Jonathan Ashworth, who started at shortstop the first two games of the series, retired the first three hitters in order.

And in the bottom of the first, UCA got the first three hitters on to load the bases. Left-fielder Scott Cline led off with a single. Graham Martin moved to Cline to third with a double to left. Matt Warren was hit by a pitch for the second time in the series to load the bases. Unfortunately, Ashur Tolliver, the Trojans starter, got the next three hitters to fly out and end the threat and the inning.

"I didn’t say anything," Coach Doug Clark said about his reaction. "I was probably too frustrated to say anything. If I had said something it probably wouldn’t have been positive, so I just kept my mouth shut."

Ashworth continued shutting down the Trojan hitters until the fifth. The first three batters reached, scoring the first run of the game. UALR added a second and had runners at first and third with only one out. Then, Ashworth fielded a bunt attempt by lead-off man Brian Smiley and pitched the ball to catcher Chris Davis in time for the tag on the runner attempting to score. Ashworth got some help in ending the inning when redshirt freshman Tye Throneberry made a diving catch in foul territory.

"[Ashworth] did really well," Clark said. "He got a little tired probably. He kept the ball down. He pitched to contact. There was just one walk, and he was a strike-thrower."

UCA didn’t respond in the fifth, going down in order. But a one-out rally in the sixth was the difference in the game.

Davis started with a single up the middle. And with one out, the Bears took advantage of a little luck in the way of two UALR fielding errors. Kevin Rawls came in to pinch hit for Chris Houk and hit a grounder to short for what looked like an easy double-play, the shortstop misplayed the ball and both runners were safe at first and second. A single by Payton Seelinger loaded the bases, and some in the stadium must have flashed back to the similar situation in the first inning. After a pitching change, a bit of irony – if that’s the correct word – tied up the game. Grant Gatlin, who transferred from UALR, shot a single up the middle to score Davis and Rawls.

The Bears didn’t stop the rally with a tie ball game. Bobby Prichett, who’s listed at 5-8 and 155 lbs., crushed a Mike Rogers pitch deep over the left field wall for a three-run homer and a three-run UCA lead, 5-2.

"That was a big hit," Clark said. "Huge hit for us."

The second error of the inning came when Cline hit an easy fly to the right fielder who just inexplicably missed it. Cline would eventually score the final run of the inning on a wild pitch. The rally ended with two men still on base. Eleven men went to the plate in the inning.

Reliever James Parsons, who got three quick outs in the sixth, put himself into trouble in the seventh. After a lead-off out, Parsons put the next two players on by a hit batter and a walk. Both would eventually score off a hit and a UCA fielding error by Derrick Corso who had just come into the game in the seventh. The inning ended with UCA still ahead 6-4.

Corso made up for the earlier mistake in the eighth. Martin reached on his second hit of the game, and Warren followed by getting hit by a pitch for the second time in the game – third of the series. After a walk to load the bases and a strikeout, Rawls hit a slow roller back to the mound for the force out at the plate but left the bases loaded. Corso responded to the error with a bases-clearing triple to the right-center field gap.

"We needed a big hit right there just to get a cushion because I really wanted [Josh] Charette to finish the game," Clark said.

Corso was left stranded on third, but the 9-4 lead was enough for Charette.

After getting a double-play grounder to end the eighth, Charette strike out three UALR hitters in the top of the ninth to earn the save and give UCA it’s first D1 win.

"That was [Charette's] first time to pitch [at UCA], so that was important," Clark said.

Parson got the win in relief. The bullpen gave up just two runs in four innings, an improvement that excited Clark after Saturday’s 12-run seventh inning.

"Much better. Much better. Parsons did a nice job. Charette – in his first outing in college – he did an outstanding job." (Charette transferred from UA-Fort Smith)

UCA finished with 12 hits in just eight innings, the highest total of the weekend.

"That was nice. We hit the first game; we hit this game. That was encouraging."

More bad shooting

It’s not easy being green, and it’s not easy to win games when you shoot 36% from the field. It’s even less easy to win while shooting 14% from the 3-pt line.



Shooting hasn’t been a strong suit for the Bears throughout most of the season, but Wednesday night it was about as far from strong as it could be. The horrendous shooting resulted in an ugly six-point loss, 60-54, to Stephen F. Austin at home.



SFA leads the conference in field goal percentage defense, so some struggles were to be expected, but no one could have predicted an 0-for-8 second half form the 3-pt line. Making just one of those would have completely changed how the end of the game would play out, but from early on, it was SFA’s night.



Coach Rand Chappell said after the game that he told his team that the team that takes a 13-6 lead would probably be the one to win in a low-scoring defensive battle. It wasn’t exactly 13-6, but UCA’s 7-5 lead quickly changed to a 23-13 deficit.



The Bears were able to cut the halftime lead to six points.



The second half was an offensive struggle on both ends. The Bears forced seven turnovers, held SFA to just 2-for-9 from outside the arc and cut the SFA first half field goal percentage of 48 down to 42%.



UCA turned up the defensive intensity and fouled the right people to get back into the game in the end.



The even had the lead down to five and had the ball with just 44 seconds remaining. Nate Bowie drove to the left side of the basket, put a shot up and was called for the charge. The turnover pretty much ended any chance the Bears had of pulling of the comeback.

If you saw the game, you know that the team never gave in. They were down 11 with just three minutes remaining. Coach Chappell’s defensive philosophy has kept the team in games, but until there’s a consistent scoring threat on the outside, the team will continue to play hard and lose close games.