Southeastern Louisiana Downs Central Arkansas 6-3
SAN MARCOS, Texas - For the first time since making a run in the
2005 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament, Southeastern Louisiana won't
have to worry about working its way through the loser's bracket after the
opening round.
Harry Slade and Brock Hebert each drove in runs in a decisive
sixth inning and four pitchers combined to scatter nine hits as the No. 2-seeded
Lions defeated No. 7 seed Central Arkansas, 6-3, in the opening round of this
year's tournament Wednesday at Bobcat Ballpark.
Southeastern, which last earned a first-round victory since
blanking then top-seeded Northwestern State in the 2005 opener, trailed 3-1
before cutting the lead on a fourth-inning RBI double by Brett Hoffman that
scored Ladd Rhodes.
The Lions rallied to take the lead for good in the sixth as Alex
Marse opened the inning with a single before scoring on Slade's RBI double into
the right-center field gap. After Ben Hernandez moved Slade over to third on a
sacrifice bunt, Hebert ripped an RBI single to left to give Southeastern a 4-3
lead that it would not relinquish.
Southeastern added a run in the seventh inning on a sacrifice fly
by Slade before sealing it with a run in the eighth on Jacob Fisher's squeeze
bunt that scored Jonathan Pace.
Jason Greenleaf (3-1) pitched 2.1 innings in relief to earn the
victory for Southeastern after replacing starter Andro Cutura in the fourth.
Dylan Hills tossed 2.0 innings of scoreless relief for the Lions before Stefan
Lopez pitched the ninth inning with two strikeouts to record his 20th save of
the season.
UCA, making its first appearance in the postseason since playing
in the Division II Gulf South Conference in 2006, took an early 1-0 lead in the
second inning when Travis Snider reached on a leadoff hit and scored two
batters later when Griffin Glaude reached on a throwing error by Hoffman.
Southeastern answered with a run in the third inning as Marse, who
finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored, led off the inning with single, stole
second and moved to third on one of four errors by UCA. Hernandez then reached
on an infield single, scoring Marse and knotting the game at 1-1.
The Bears added a pair of runs in the fourth to take a 3-1 lead,
chasing Cutura for Greenleaf in the process. Snider led off the frame with an
opposite-field double before scoring on Garrett Brown's RBI single to left.
After Brown moved to second on a wild pitch and third on a single by Glaude,
Blake Roberts lifted a sacrifice fly to left that scored Brown.
Caleb McClanahan (6-5) suffered the loss for UCA after allowing
four runs - two unearned - and scattering seven hits in 5.1 innings. Snider and
Blake Marchal had two hits each for UCA, which took two of three games from the
Lions in early April.
Slade and Hernandez had two hits apiece for Southeastern, which
collected 11 hits off four UCA pitchers.
Southeastern (37-19) advanced to face host and No. 3 seed Texas
State Thursday at 7 p.m. UCA will face Stephen F. Austin in an elimination game
at noon.
Postgame Quotes
Southeastern
Louisiana coach Jay Artigues
On
Stefan Lopez coming in to close the game
"It's pretty comforting when you have a guy like Stefan Lopez in
the bullpen. He pitches with great mentality."
On
the atmosphere in the dugout when the team is trailing
"These kids have been resilient all year. We have so many new guys
this year so the poise and maturity they show says a lot about these young men.
They never panic and stick with the plan, and they did that tonight."
On
facing Texas State tomorrow
"We're playing a heck of a Texas State club, probably the most
talented team in this conference. Having them here is always a challenge. They
have a good club and very well coached. We're just going to come out and play
Lion baseball."
Southeastern
Louisiana right fielder Alex Marse
On
the mentality of the dugout when they were down
"Coach keeps a positive energy in the dugout. All we had to do was
stick with our plan. We were squaring them up but just hitting them straight at
people. Central Arkansas got a few clutch hits but we knew if we stayed in the
game for awhile we knew we would have that clutch hitting for us."
On
the pitching staff
"You can't say enough about our pitching staff. They come in and
get their job done."
Central
Arkansas coach Allen Gum
On
the team's play early on
"We played hard and made the most out of it. I thought we played
well overall except for the fact that we hit them five times, walked a couple
and had four errors. We call those freebies, and they beat us on that. That was
the biggest difference in the game. We knew we didn't want to be behind late in
the game with Lopez sitting in the pen."
On
hitting five batters
"It was unusual. We hadn't seen that this year. I thought our
starter did a great job. He got a big out getting Hebert out with bases loaded.
They got a timely hit or two more than us, and that was the difference. We hit
the ball well but we needed a big hit with runners in scoring position and it
just didn't happen tonight."
On
having to battle back in the loser's bracket
"We've got tough kids. We've done that all year. We lost on Friday
and always came back on Saturday and played really well. It's a 12-hour
turnaround so we're going to have to be tough."