BEAUMONT – For the first time since 2010, one season before it hired current head coach Allen Gum, Central Arkansas will pay a visit to Vincent-Beck Stadium when the Bears head in to take on the Lamar University baseball team in a three-game Southland Conference series that starts at 6 p.m. Friday night.
The second game of the series is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday and the finale at 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon. Harold Mann will have Sunday's contest on KLVI 560AM and on klvi.iheart.com or on the iHeart Radio app. Friday and Saturday's contests will be carried on LamarCardinals.com.
The last 12 matchups between UCA (9-7, 3-0 Southland Conference) and LU (10-7, 1-2) have been played on the Bears' turf, and nine of those games have swung UCA's way. Both the Cardinals and Bears enter contest after midweek losses to instate rivals. UCA opens the series after a sweep of SFA and LU after dropping two of three at Northwestern State.
Big Red tried to rally from a 4-0 deficit to No.19 Houston on Tuesday, but fell just short after going 1-of-7 with runners in scoring position, normally a strength of the Cardinal baseball team. UCA held an early lead at Arkansas-Little Rock, but a couple of Trojan homers helped spark a comeback in a 6-5 Bear loss.
Logan Preston tops UCA with a .370 batting average, and his 12 runs batted in only sits behind Justin McCarty (14). Brandon Montalvo has 12 runs scored and eight RBI while Tyler Langley has 10 runs and nine RBI.
The Bears are projected to send right-hander Connor Gilmore (1-2, 5.16 earned run average) to the mound Friday night and righty Cody Davenport (2-0, 1.57) on Saturday. Gilmore will match up against
Will Hibbs (2-1, 1.73) while Davenport will face
Jayson McKinley (0-0, 2.42) Saturday.
Hibbs suffered his first loss of the season without allowing an earned run in six innings of work at Northwestern State. NSU's Nick Heath reached base on an infield error and worked his way to third. With two strikes and two outs, he stole home when catcher
Bryndan Arredondo was tossing the baseball back to Hibbs.
Arredondo is Lamar's top hitter this season with a .414 batting average, good enough for fifth in the Southland Conference. He is one of four players with 10 or more runs scored so far on the season, all behind leaders
Reid Russell and
Jacoby Middleton at 11 apiece.
Both Russell and Middleton are tied for the team lead with 13 RBI as well, followed by
Jake Nash's 12.
AT&T will sponsor the weekend's contests, and will be handing out rally towels at Saturday's game. Chartwells will join in Saturday with $1 Hot Dog Day and Lamar University will hand out sunglasses before Sunday's game, while supplies last.
Tickets can be purchased at LamarCaridnals.com or fans can visit or call the athletics ticket office in the Montagne Center at 409-880-1717.
