UCAFANS.COM | GO UCA BEARS!

https://thesystem.farm/episode-49-allen-gum-central-arkansas/


Coach Gum on The Farm System podcast...……..


Magnolia, Sheridan, Batesville, Magnolia, Admissions Office, Conway, Jonathan Davis offers, on the field every day, 50 gut principles, culture, 3 games from Omaha, fight and faith, grit and fire to win, substance type players, do we want to coach this player, development, making straight As, athleticism, approach, awareness, atmosphere, start early, football type practice, running the bases, water bags, speed-strength, strength-speed, underload, overload, coaching on the run, technology, free baseball ideas, assistant coaches, kings and kingmakers.....


Good insights...…...runs about 50 minutes...……..

Thanks for posting about the podcast. I didn't know that podcast existed. The same guys also interviewed Curry at UALR and the UA strength coach.

Your summary covered everything. I want to see a practice to understand the "water bags." I thought the conversation about technology was interesting and a bit depressing maybe. Coach Gum clearly believes that it's not a requirement to have a good team with good players, but I do wonder if he did have the money for a Trackman, Rapsodo, HitTrax, etc. if he'd feel the same way.

Hopefully some former players sign a huge contract and throw some change back to the program.

(He also referenced Wes Johnson who made the jump from UA straight to the Twins. He has a reputation of being a Trackman guru.)

Opening Day on Friday for weekend series vs Bradley...……. hoping for some decent weather and a series win...……...119th season for the Braves who were 32-19 in 2018 and eliminated in MVC tourney as #3 seed by #2 seed Dallas Baptist...…

Bears and Braves have not played but Bradley is 21-12 vs other Arkansas D1 schools though most wins were quite a while back...

PS...Bradley's big time former player is Kirby Puckett who played for them in 1981...…..

Opening DAY!


It's gonna be COOOOOOOOOOOOOLD.

Go Bears!

Bradley@UCA

BU 5-8-0
UCA 2-7-1

Braves win first baseball game ever between the two schools with a 4 run 4th....both SP went 4 innings and both closers went 5 innings....BU pitchers had 13Ks while Bears had 10...….Bears defense had an impressive 12 ground outs...Bears hit the ball with 10 flyouts....Navarro went 2/5 with both rbis…….had out chances with 9 LOBs...…...Saturday is another day and another game. ..Go Bears!!

Bradley@UCA
Game 2

BU 4-6-1 (2-0)
UCA 3-5-1 (0-2)


Missed scoring more runs in 1st with bases loaded…..gave up a 2 run HR......shut out once again by Bradley's RPs.....Bears' Heltemes went 5 innings in relief of no hit scoreless work.....

Another chance Sunday to get the first one........Go Bears!!

Bradley@UCA
Game 3

BU 9-15-2 (2-1)
UCA 13-10-3 (1-2)

https://ucasports.com/news/2019/2/17/baseball-bears-roll-to-sunday-victory-over-braves.aspx


Good to get the first win of the season and avoid a home sweep but not pretty...….combined there were 25 hits, 24 BB, 20 Ks and 23 LOB.....

"The Bears (1-2) took the final game of the series with the aid of 15 walks, four wild pitches and a NCAA Division I record eight stolen bases. The 15 walks, issued by a combination of six Bradley pitchers, was the second-most in UCA history and helped the Bears score at least one run in each of the first five innings."

Beau Orlando led Bears with 2/2 2 runs and 3 rbis.........Christian Brasher and Marco Navarro each had 2 rbis........Mathew Patton led the hurlers with the win in 3.2 IP f 1 run, 4 hit ball and 5Ks.

Illinoist State next weekend for 4 at Bear Stadium.

Illinois State@UCA


Redbirds in town this weekend for 4 after sweeping Belmont in Nashville last week. After UCA they then go to Murray State for 3, then to Vandy for 3, then to SEMO then to SIU/Edwardsville and finally have their home opener vs Central Michigan on March 15-17.

At Belmont they scored 51 runs on 42 hits and pitchers had 37 Ks and gave up 23 BBs. Belmont helped out with 8 errors. Pitching gave up 20 runs on 23 hits.

In Game 1 Birds won 27-16 in 11 innings...........think about that.........Belmont had three pitchers in 11th that gave up 16 runs.

For what's it worth, Belmont was 19-36 last season and Birds were 22-30. ISU enrollment is 21,000+.

Top players last weekend were:

CF John Rave hitting 8/13 with 6 rbis
RF Joe Butler hitting 6/15 with 6 rbis and a HR
1B Ryan Hutchinson hitting 5/13 with 9 rbis and 2 xtrabase hits

Closer Jacob Gilmore got the win in Game 1 and a save in Game 3 with a scoreless 6 IP giving up only 3 hits and 2 BBs while fanning 8.

Meaningless Trivia...……..Birds are 11-29 (28%) vs current Southland schools including 0-1 vs UCA. Also, they are 11-12 vs Arkansas D1 schools.

They are 73-116 (39%) vs current Big 10 but 33-43 excluding games vs Illinois (32-53) and Northwestern (8-14). They are 11-8 vs Iowa. They are also 17-10 vs Notre Dame.

Illinois State@UCA

Game 1:

ISU 4-8-0 (3-1)
UCA 6-10-0 (2-2)

Nice win with coming back or 0-1 in 1st to matching their scores and the win in the 9th. SP Cody Davenport nice 4 IP with 1 run on 4 hits and 6 Ks..... the 3BBs and one HBP should get cleaned up with another game or two...….RP Conner Williams 1.1 IP of shut out back with 2 Ks was very timely . Beau Orlando and Christian Brasher each went 2/3 and Cole Fiori had 2 rbis. Too many Ks by Bear batters at 12 but 4 doubles and HRs by Fiori and Josh Ragan. ISU averages 14 hits per game so far so only 8 today is a good sign for pitching.

DH tomorrow with Birds.

Illinois State@UCA

Game 3:
ISU 1-9-1 (4-2)
UCA 4-7-0 (3-3)


Good pitching and timely hitting...…….another two SBs......SP Moyer throws 5.1 IP of shutout ball and RP Williams wraps up final 3.2 IP with one run on 4 hits and 4Ks......

Game 2:
ISU 8-12-1 (4-1)
UCA 0-3-2 (2-3)


Not much in way of UCA highlights except RP Gavin Stone threw 1.1 IP of no hit shutout ball with 3 ks.

Here's a site that keeps up with the RPI for teams: UCA is currently ranked 41st in RPI. Not sure how much that means overall but interesting info all the same. Looks like the site owner needs to add the past weekend games.

http://rpiupdatebaseball.blogspot.com/2019/01/central-arkansas.html

Standings from that site:

Illinois State@UCA

Game 4:
https://ucasports.com/news/2019/2/25/baseball-bears-fall-late-to-redbirds-in-series-finale.aspx

ISU 6-13-2 (5-2)
UCA 3-8-2 (3-4)

Excellent pitching through eight for both teams with scoreless outings...…..Fiori, Orlando and Sagdahl each had two hits and all three rbis……..Birds area very good hitting team and Bears had some pretty solid pitching over the weekend...…..42 hits in four games but better than the 42 in three games they whacked out at Belmont...…...Bears batters had 28 hits...…..

Really hoping to get over 500 this past weekend but a split is good against what might be a pretty solid ISU team...…..now try to get a split at Missouri State this week.....

Bears at Missouri State this week then host Mizzou (first ever visit to UCA, series split 2-2) and South Dakota State then A-State mid next week before off to Hammond for opening SLC series vs Lions.

@MoState

Drops Game 1 by 9-7......had our chances with 11 LOB...….

and Game 2 by 15-3...……..gave up 19 hits plus another 6 base runners from BBs/HBP.....

Purple Bears now 3-6............