A long list of stranded runners cost the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff baseball team Sunday.
Alabama State swept UAPB with a 14-4 win at the Torii Hunter Baseball Complex in Pine Bluff, ASU’s first sweep of the season.
UAPB (5-23, 3-6 SWAC) tallied seven hits and five walks but stranded 12 runners, including 11 in scoring position. UAPB hit 2 for 14 with runners in scoring position.
Head coach Logan Stout said the Golden Lions proved they can hit the ball, but some players may be trying to do too much at times.
“Friday, we had 21 hits,” Stout said. “(Saturday), we had hits. It was getting timely hits that kept disrupting the offensive flow, and baseball’s that way. Look at any Major League Baseball team that’s won a World Series. They’ve gone through lulls in the middle of the season, and we’re just in a lull. We’re fighting the injury bug and trying to get some guys healthy, and I think we have guys just pressing.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The Golden Lions took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI single by designated hitter Carlos Rodriguez-Velez, scoring left fielder Gavin Terry, who led off the inning with a walk.
UAPB didn’t score again until adding 3 runs in the eighth on a bases loaded walk and an error. In the meantime, UAPB stranded two runners in scoring position in each of the first three innings with one each in the fourth and fifth innings. The Golden Lions started 2 for 4 with RISP but finished 0 for 10.
Terry led the Golden Lions by hitting 2 for 3 with an RBI and a run. No other player had multiple hits.
Alabama State starting pitcher Esaid Pena (2-3) pitched 5.1 innings, allowing 1 run on five hits with three strikeouts and two walks. The Golden Lions scored 3 runs, 1 earned, against reliever Will Bartkoski, but the other three bullpen pitchers ASU used combined for three shutout innings.
While UAPB struggled to bring runners home, ASU (13-16, 6-3) didn’t. The Hornets scored 5 runs in the third inning on a pair of 2-run home runs and an RBI single. Third baseman Luke Parmentier led off the next inning with a solo home run, the Hornets’ third homer of the day and seventh of the series.
Stout said the Golden Lions needed to be better at responding to ASU’s big inning.
“There’s a lot of maturing that has to happen,” Stout said. “It’s a long game. There’s a lot of baseball left, and one inning can’t disrupt your entire focus and what you’re doing. That just comes with maturity, and we’ll get there, but you got to give credit to them. They crushed the baseball, and some days, that just happens.”
Bama State added 2 runs in the fifth, 1 unearned run each in the seventh and eighth, and 4 runs in the ninth. Parmentier, second baseman Alex Espaillat and designated hitter Demarckus Smiley tallied three hits apiece. Espaillat and left fielder Kelvin Agosto each finished with 3 RBI.
UAPB starter Brant Voth (1-3) allowed 8 runs on 10 hits in five innings with two strikeouts and no walks.
This series was the second time in SWAC play and sixth time overall UAPB has been swept in a weekend series this season. The Golden Lions prevailed last weekend, sweeping Alcorn State on the road.
Terry said the first two months of the season showed him this team is resilient, and the Golden Lions will look to put this weekend behind them when they travel to Missouri for two midweek games Tuesday and Wednesday.
“We’re troopers,” Terry said. “We’ve gone through the ringer going up against some really good teams earlier this spring. We’re just troopers. We try our best. We have to. We don’t have the best talent in the world, but we work hard. It’s just a testament to who we are as people.”