Well, the season has been one of ups and downs since I last wrote. We took 2 out of 3 from Belmont in a non-conference series at home. We won the first two games, but they had a big comeback in the 9th inning to take the final game. We then traveled to Oral Roberts, which is Coach Norwood’s alma mater.  It was a back-and-forth game, with us scoring four in the 9th to win 13-9.  We did a good job of playing small ball to get runs early in the game. Tulsa-native Tony Pryor pitched well out of the bullpen for us against ORU, regardless of what the line score looked like.

We returned to conference action with a home series against UL Lafayette, but dropped all three games. Friday night’s game was outstanding. We jumped on them early, with Tyson Parks hitting a home run to go up 3-0.  ULL hung around and Chad Keefer hit a home run in the 8th for the go-ahead run and we couldn’t scratch across another run in a 4-3 loss. Saturday’s game was another interesting one as we had a good outing from Daniel Golden until the 6th inning. ULL made some good adjustments and put together a big inning on its way to a 9-7 win. Sunday they just beat us, period. I was rather disappointed in our effort.

The following weekend led us to Middle Tennessee State. They are a good club and it was a heck of a game in the series opener until MTSU erupted for several runs in the 8th inning. We weren’t good on damage control and the game got out of hand. The doubleheader on Sunday was interesting. MTSU has a very small park and with the wind blowing out over 25 mph you can’t miss spots. Both teams did, however, and that led to a combined 39 runs being scored by both teams. Stephen F. Austin then came in for a mid-week game. It was a great game as both teams had their chances to score runs. The pitching staffs for both teams did a good job making pitches in crucial situations. Sean Potter did a good job keeping us in the game but we ended up losing 3-2. Despite losing, we had a chance to see something extremely rare in baseball, as Bryce Killingsworth threw out two guys from LF in the same inning.

We were only able play five innings in our home series with New Orleans. The amount of rain we had made our outfield look like “Lake Little Rock.” We won the first game 4-3 in 5 innings but that was all the baseball for the weekend. OU was our next game and one for three of our coaches to enjoy since we all have had time in the state. We jumped on them early 5-0, but OU had a huge 3rd inning which dictated the rest of the game en route to a 14-5 loss.

The last series we completed was against Western Kentucky. It was a great series as each game was rather close. Adam Champion was good on the mound in Friday’s opener and we had a 4-2 lead after 8 innings. We went to the bullpen and made some mistakes that caught us and we ended up giving up three in the 9th to lose 5-4. On Saturday, Daniel Golden took the mound and provided another quality start, going 7 1/3. Casey McCollum was outstanding in the leadoff role for us, going 3-for-6. The game went into extras as we made some mistakes again in the 9th. Landis Wilson and Brock Feldmann got the offense going in the 11th and we ended up winning. In the final game we turned the ball over to Tony Pryor. He gave us our 3rd quality start on the weekend, going 8 2/3 and giving up just two runs. Jason Houston was phenomenal for us offensively and defensively against WKU. He made three plays at 2nd that were outstanding and also hit a home run late to extend the lead for us.

Next up for the Trojans is ULM. We currently sit at 24-23 with seven games left. Hope to see everyone this weekend.

Well, we have seen it all in the last couple of weeks since I updated the blog. In conference, we have had our ups and downs. South Alabama came to Little Rock and played some outstanding baseball. They pitched very well (especially on Friday night) and can also be a very strong offensive club. The Florida Atlantic trip is always a good time for our kids, who get to see a different part of the country. We played well on Friday at FAU but faltered all-around the next two days. We were able to take 2 out of 3 from Florida International the following week. FIU is always a talented club and I thought we pitched it very well the first two days. Adam Champion was outstanding the first game of the series and Daniel Golden pitched threw a long rain delay to throw a complete game. Our offense was brilliant the whole weekend against the Jaguars. Last weekend we dropped two games at Troy in a closely-contested series. We suffered a 5-4 loss to Troy on Saturday, in a game which was on national television, but rebounded with a 9-4 win on Sunday. Even though we lost the series I think Sunday wins are huge, and rollover to your mid-week games.

In non-conference we recently faced two quality clubs in Kansas University and Ole Miss. In the KU game we held an 8-4 lead through 6 ½. We faltered in the 7th though, giving up five runs. We did well offensively against the Jayhawks, but we didn’t pound the zone enough to deserve to win. It is a shame we couldn’t help more on the hill.

Against #15 Ole Miss on Wednesday night we had some clutch hitting in the 7th inning from Tyson Parks and Nate Brown, who both hit two-run home runs. We pitched it well enough, giving up four earned runs over 9 to get a 9-6 win. Sean Potter, Ryan Juris, Travis Henke, and JR Boling were outstanding from our bullpen. We needed this as a program at UALR to give us a signature win. We currently sit at 19-13 on the year after beating Belmont 13-2 tonight. 

I hope to see you at the ballpark soon. 

Well it is finally here. We are 10-3 on the year and open up conference play this weekend at home against a South Alabama squad that is 9-6. As a coach you look at a season in three parts. Non-conference, conference, and then the postseason are how I like to break it up. It is obviously important to finish in the Top 3 in the conference and receive a regional bid.

Our goal this past weekend was to sweep IPFW and get to 10 wins by Sunday, and we were able to accomplish that. The pitching staff did a nice job as our guys gave quality starts each game. The hitters were outstanding on Friday, opening the game up early for our starter.

Tuesday night we played Stephen F. Austin University, which is in a similar situation as us, as they are much improved from a year ago. We weren’t a very good club on Tuesday. We didn’t pitch as well as I would have liked, we struggled defensively, and we only managed two hits on the night. We had a chance to blow it open early in the game with a 2-0 lead, the bases loaded and 1 out on the board, but we couldn’t do it.

The game always has a way to humble kids and coaches. Their kid really struggled early and then settled down to pitch very well. Hopefully our guys learned that you need to put people away when given the opportunity. Of course, that isn’t going to happen every game.

I hope to see all of you at the park this weekend. The weather is supposed to be beautiful and for those of you who come to the games and sit in the new deck over the rocks, we appreciate you!!!! 

In the coaching profession most people would be rather excited about a start like this. Unfortunately, two of our losses have come by one run, which can drive a coach insane at times. We have really done some good things so far this year, but at the same time there is still room for improvement. We took 3 out of 4 against SIUE this past weekend. SIUE impressed me tremendously. I thought they were much improved from a year ago.  They have a nice arm that will be their Friday night guy who has the potential to play the game beyond the collegiate level. They also had some hitters that executed very well.

We just split a pair of midweek games with a good Eastern Michigan team.  In the first game, which we won 15-4, we had an outstanding pitching performance to go along with a critical error by EMU which led to 10 runs in the 3rd inning.  I was proud of our hitters for adding a 4 spot later in the game and not letting up.  The second game turned out to be totally opposite.  We didn’t pound the zone as a staff, we were shaky defensively, and we had some interesting approaches at the plate.  That being said, we still had a chance to win the game with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th.  Kids will learn from it as coaches do.  We will continue to work every day…

First off, let me apologize for my lack of updates recently. UALR Baseball started on a good note this past weekend with a 5-0 win over UAPB and an 8-2 victory over Saint Louis. The only downside was that we were only able to get in 2 games instead of 4 because of all the rain on Sunday.

In the UAPB game we got a good pitching performance from Adam Champion and Travis Henke.  Adam went 5 1/3 IP while Travis went the final 3 2/3.  UAPB played very well and it was a tight game until the 5^th where we hit a ball in the right center gap with the bases loaded. The CF tracked it down on the run but the ball fell out of his glove leading to a 3-0 lead.  We tacked a couple of runs on later to finish the game 5-0.

In the St. Louis game, we jumped on them early with a 4 spot in the first.  In the top of the first Daniel Golden got a huge double play ball from their 4-hole hitter.  Daniel went 5 2/3 with Garrett Graziano finishing the rest of the way, going 3 1/3.  Jake Rowell connected for his first home run of the year and Jason Houston went 3-5.  Overall we did an outstanding job getting a big lead early in the game.  Our pitching for the most part did what was asked of them.  From a coaching standpoint our bullpen was outstanding, throwing 7 IP without giving up a run while walking 3 and striking out 13.

With the cancellation yesterday we have added UCA for tomorrow at 4 PM.  Hope you can make it out to the ballpark.