South Arkansas College enters the third week of Region 2 play on a roll.
Winners of five straight, the Stars hit the road to start a key early series against Arkansas-Rich Mountain today.
The opener was scheduled for Thursday, but the threat of rain moved the game back a day.
Game time is set for 2 p.m.
The schools are set to play a doubleheader in El Dorado on Saturday with a 1 p.m. start time.
The Stars (14-10, 4-2) enter off a sweep of National Park, winning two of the three games by one run.
The Bucks (9-15, 5-1) got off to a 2-14 start, but have gotten on a roll themselves over the last three weeks, winning seven of their last eight, including a sweep of Arkansas State Mid-South last week that saw the Bucks outscore the Greyhounds 49-10 in the three games.
Arkansas-Rich Mountain added to their winning streak by topping Seminole State (Okla.) 5-4 on Tuesday.
Redshirt freshman Cody Hayes leads the team with a .469 average, while freshman Jack Bilski is next at a .441 clip. He ranks second on the team in RBIs with 16.
Sophomore Brett Justice leads the team in RBIs with 17 while sharing the team lead in home runs with two. He is hitting .313.
Aiden McGinnis, a sophomore, also has two home runs while hitting .354 with 15 RBIs. He also sports an on-base percentage of .511.
Caleb Bryant, a sophomore, has two home runs with 11 RBIs along with a .299 average. He leads the team in stolen bases with 12.
Sophomore Austin Rainey, a left-hander, has gotten off to a solid start, going 3-0 with a 3.38 ERA in five appearances that includes four starts. In 24 innings, he has allowed 18 hits, walked 18 and struck out 30. He struck out nine while walking six and allowing four hits and two runs over 5 1/3 innings to finish the sweep of ASU Mid-South last week.
Freshmen Ethan Diaz and Clint Lafferty started the first two games last weekend with the latter winning Game 2 with a six-hitter for his second complete game.
The bullpen is led by freshman Camden Farmer, who has a 2.87 ERA spanning 15 2/3 innings in 10 appearances.
“I know their guy at the top is pretty good,” SouthArk coach Cannon Lester said of the Bucks. “We actually saw him in the fall, so that’s a good thing. We got to see a lot of pitches, a lot of at-bats in one game, so we’ll remember him a little bit. Hitting-wise, they like to manufacture.
“If we don’t give them free bases, I like our chances, but they’re going to be tough. They scuffled early a little bit, but they’re really starting to come into their own. They’re going to be a team that’s starting to believe in themselves. They’ve got one or two guys in their bullpen, but if we can get to them early, hopefully we can score some runs there.”
Pitching and timely hitting were the recipes the Stars used in their sweep of the Nighthawks.
SouthArk won the opener 2-1 despite striking out 18 times against the tandem of Carter Gaston and Arthur Perez.
Sophomore Brett Foss allowed one run and three hits in seven innings with one walk and nine strikeouts to pick up his second win.
Freshman Bryson Menard struck out the side in the eighth and sophomore Luke Eaton pitched around a hit with two strikeouts in the ninth for his fifth save to give the Stars 14 strikeouts of their own.
In Game 2 on Monday, freshman Ryan Ursery struck out nine over 5 2/3 innings to pick up his fifth win, and sophomore Beau Kuttenkuler hit his first home run of the season while driving in four runs in a 7-6 win.
Ty Simonelli capped a big series by homering twice in Game 3 after hitting one in the opener. Freshman Gavin Murphy launched his fourth home run and Jacob Ambriz connected for his third of the year in a 6-2 win.
Colin Reed worked five scoreless innings, allowing two hits with three walks and six strikeouts to pick up the victory.
“I thought we pitched really good,” Lester said. “For a three-game stretch, it’s probably the best we’ve pitched it. They scored a few runs in Game 2, but honestly, we gave it to them. I think we gave up four earned all weekend, so that was really good. I’m really proud of the pitchers.
“For the most part, they were all really good. I thought we threw the ball great. Then we had some timely hitting. We executed a little bit and had some timely hitting there, so it’s always good when you don’t think you hit or even fielded it great and you sweep, but when you pitch it good, it’s a good, good thing. I’m excited for the pitchers.”
Simonelli hit four home runs last week to raise his total to nine on the season, which ranks him third in the country. His 24 RBIs also leads the team.
“He’s swung it really good,” Lester said. “You don’t see many times that a guy has nine homers, four doubles and a single. That’s kind of an odd stat line, but he’s swung it well. He’s gotten his swing off when he’s needed to. The average (.237) is not great, but honestly, he’s gotten robbed a little bit.
“He’s hitting in the two hole, and the at-bats have been better than the average. His run production is huge, and that’s what it’s all about, preventing runs and scoring runs. He’s helping us score a lot of runs. He had a huge week for us. Hopefully that keeps propelling him forward because he’s got a chance to be really good.”
Lester said the rotation of Foss (2-4, 4.13 ERA), Ursery (5-2, 4.85 ERA) and Reed (3-0, 2.45 ERA) will stay in place for the series against the Bucks, but that could be modified given the depth of their bullpen and the shorter recovery time for Ursery and Reed considering they pitched on Monday.
“They’re going to have a shorter time frame to recover,” Lester said. “Ryan and Colin both threw a little north of 100 (pitches), so we’ll check with them to see how they are. We can throw them 40 or 50 and put somebody else in. We still feel pretty good about it.”
SouthArk pitchers finished with 39 strikeouts in 25 innings against National Park, and Lester said the staff is gaining confidence.
“I think just attacking with multiple pitches,” Lester said. “They’re throwing any pitch in any count. We’ve got some guys that we didn’t throw this weekend that we feel really good about. I think our depth is unparalleled on the mound right now, which is really exciting. Hopefully it stays like that. They have a lot of belief in themselves so it was fun to watch.”
Freshman Bryce McGuire was singled out for his work in Game 3, working 2 2/3 innings before giving way to Menard, who finished the sweep by working the last 1 1/3 innings.
McGuire struck out four and didn’t issue any walks while allowing three hits with one being a home run.
“He had a really big outing,” Lester said. “He threw good against SAU Tech in a game that got away from us. He came in and threw the ball really well. He caught a front-foot homer, and that was the only hit he gave up. He’s starting to figure out the breaking ball a little bit. He’s got a lot of belief in himself. I thought he was a bridge that really made it go, so I was proud of him.”
Lester said he hopes to have freshmen Chase Irby and Yadi Canales back this week after both were out due to illnesses last week.
“Chase Irby came back and he was sick again on Saturday, Yadi (Canales) hurt his ankle and he was sick, so he was out,” Lester said. “Hopefully, those guys are back. It’s still kind of going around. Chase came back to practice, and I think he’s going to be our starting shortstop for a little while now. He played really well in practice, so hopefully he keeps that going.”
With freshman shortstop Kenner Lauterbach out for the year due to an injury, Lester is trying to see who will step and play the position with redshirt freshman Alex Showalter moving to his normal spot at second base.
“Second base is his natural position,” Lester said. “Alex has been playing with a torn labrum the whole year, and he really hurt it throwing a ball at Henderson (State), so we had to take him out. His shoulder has really been bothering him, so we’re trying to take the stress off his arm. That’s why we moved him over. We feel good about him there.
“Honestly, I think it’s between KJ (Battles) and Chase Irby, but we could also move Gabe (Kuttenkuler) over to short. He can handle it, but it’s also going to be, ‘Who are we going to put at third base?’ You pick and choose which one you want to change and right now, we’re switching out our shortstop.
“Honestly, we need somebody to stick there. We need them to make plays. If they hit, that’s great. I’m not so much worried about the offense, I want somebody just to pick up the routine ball and throw it across the infield and give our pitchers what they need.”