Trojans win twice, force winner-take-all title game | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Facing elimination for the third consecutive day, the fourth-seeded Arkansas-Little Rock baseball team came through with two victories in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament on Saturday to keep its season alive and force a winner-take-all championship game Sunday afternoon against Eastern Illinois.

The Trojans began the day with a 7-5 win over top-seeded Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, before making a late rally to edge No. 2 seed Eastern Illinois 4-3 at Mtn Dew Park in Marion, Ill.

SIU-Edwardsville (33-24) was eliminated from the tournament with the loss to the Trojans. It was the first defeat of the tournament for Eastern Illinois, which is why it will have one more opportunity to claim the championship Sunday. First pitch is set for noon Central.

“It’s our culture and it’s our standard,” UALR Coach Chris Curry said. “These guys just don’t quit. So many heroes tonight. We just were thinking 27 outs, how can we piece it together?”

In the win over SIU-Edwardsville, UALR (35-26) scored seven runs on nine hits. Nico Baumbach and Cooper Chaplain both homered. Baumbach finished with a game-high four hits to go along with a pair of RBI.

Four different pitchers took the mound for the Trojans, who have now played six games in the four days. The pitching staff combined to strike out 11, with Tag Andrews and Gage Haley picking up four and three, respectively.

Haley (5-5) gave up 5 hits and 1 earned run in 3 1/3 innings of relief to secure the win. Andrews pitched the final two innings, earning the save after allowing one hit and holding the Cougars scoreless. It was the 34th win of the season for the Trojans, marking a new program record.

“I’m so proud of them,” Curry said. “A lot of teams after a historic year last year would have dropped off or struggled. I want to establish consistency in this program at a championship level. That’s hard to do in college baseball and I’m proud that we’re doing that.”

UALR used four more pitchers in the win over Eastern Illinois (33-20), emptying its bullpen as it attempted to stave off elimination for the fourth consecutive game. Malcolm Brown got the start, but gave up three earned runs in two innings.

Josh Beezley, Blake Van Cleve and Brannon Westmoreland also saw action on the mound for the Trojans. Westmoreland (6-2) was credited with the win after holding the Panthers scoreless over the final two innings.

“We knew early on that we had the pitching depth to make a deep run in a tournament setting,” Curry said. “Even when it didn’t go like we wanted it to go in the regular season, I kept telling them, ‘Get to the tournament. You guys have got the pitching depth to do it.’ “

A run scored by Blake Simpson on a wild pitch thrown by Eastern Illinois starter James Geshel was the only run scored by UALR until the top of the eighth inning. A two-run single hit up the middle by Simpson in the eighth scored Jerdy Lopez and Kade Smith to tie the score at 3-3.

Lopez hit the go-ahead RBI single in the top of the ninth to give the Trojans their first lead and set the final score. Eastern Illinois pitcher Anthony Solis (4-4) was charged with the loss after surrendering the final three runs.

Lopez and Smith both had three hits apiece, while Simpson had a pair. UALR finished with nine hits in the win. Eastern Illinois picked up seven hits, with Quade Peters collecting a team-high three. Mike O’Coner added two hits, including a solo home run in the top of the first that opened the scoring in the game.

Sunday’s game will mark the second consecutive season the two programs will meet in a winner-take-all championship game. The Trojans edged the Panthers 2-1 in the title game of the 2025 OVC Tournament. The winner will earn the conference’s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

“It’ll be another good one (Sunday),” Curry said. “I don’t think either side has an idea of who’s pitching. Doesn’t matter. It’ll be all heart, guts and adrenaline (Sunday). We’ll see what happens, it’ll be fun.”

SWAC TOURNAMENT

UAPB 13, BETHUNE-COOKMAN 8

A day after allowing Alabama State to rally from a five-run deficit to win, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff did the same Saturday morning to keep its season alive by eliminating the top-seeded team from the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala.

The opener did set the stage for UAPB’s semifinal rematch with Alabama State, which was in a weather delay at press time late Saturday.

The game one victory for the Golden Lions was their second of the tournament over Bethune-Cookman (38-20). They beat the Wildcats 6-4 in the first round.

Vinny Saumell went 3 for 5 with 2 runs batted in, and Aaron Grant finished 3 for 6 for UAPB (25-33). Zyon Hamilton, who added 2 hits, scored 2 runs and had a team-high 3 RBI. Four other players also scored at least twice.

The Golden Lions held a 3-0 lead until Bethune-Cookman scored eight straight runs, including six in the sixth. Christopher Watson had a two-run single in the inning that snapped a 3-3 tie while Andrey Martinez and Michael Rodriguez followed with back-to-back hits that aided in the Wildcats’ five-run cushion.

UAPB, which had 17 hits in the game, scored a trio of runs in the seventh inning, but it was a seven-run eighth that put it over the top. Jose Vasquez’s two-run double knotted the game at 8-8, and Weston Gingerich’s run-scoring single gave them the lead for good. Saumell and Hamilton drove in two runs each during the outburst.

— Erick Taylor