Bears get first SLC sweep
It probably took a bit longer than the Bears wanted, but UCA finally won all three games against an Southland Conference opponent.
Sunday’s 8-5 win over Nicholls State came on the arms of starter Matt Whitaker and Reece Cross. Whitaker struggled in the third, giving up three runs on just two hits, but he settled down after that and added eight more strikeouts to his career total.
Cross came in Friday to get the win and again on Sunday to get the save. Cross got out of a jam in the eighth and threw just a single ball in the ninth to end it.
The bats were also working for the Bears who pounded out 12 hits, some of those thanks to the wind gusts, and took advantage of two key errors made by the Colonels.
Down 4-1 in the bottom of the third, number nine hitter Josh Huffman crushed a double to right field that hit near the top of the wall. That was immediately followed up by a double from Peyton Seelinger. Seelinger hit the ball a mile into the air and deep into center field. The win was blowing so hard that the center fielder misplayed it by at least 10 feet. Huffman had to wait to see if the ball would be caught, so he was only able to advance to third.
Kevin Rawls’ single scored Huffman, and Chris Houk hit a sac fly to right that scored Seelinger. But the Bears were still down one.
Whitaker gave up the last of his five runs in the fifth, thanks mostly to a throwing error on a pickoff attempt by catcher Chris Davis. The runner advanced the third and then scored on a base hit later in the same at bat.
Things more than balanced out though in the bottom of the inning. With one out, the Nicholls center fielder again misplayed a ball, this one dropping out of his glove as the wind again was likely to blame. Rawls hit another RBI single to cut the lead to 5-4.
After a ground out by Daivs and a walk to Houk, the biggest play of the game came on a UCA gamble. Scott Cline laid down a two-out bunt. The catcher fielded it and tried to get Cline at first. The throw short-hopped the first baseman would couldn’t pick it. Both Rawls and Houk scored and Cline reached third on the error.
Designated hitter Eric Tennyson followed with a single that scored Cline and finished the fifth inning scoring with UCA up 7-5.
The Bears added the final run in the sixth as Houk picked up his second RBI of the game and his seventh of the weekend.
Seelinger, led UCA with three hits and reach base all five atbats. He had zero RBIs but scored three of UCA runs. Rawls, Tennyson and Jonathan Yerby each had two hits of their own.