Southern University saved its best for Saturday’s series finale but couldn’t prevent the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff from sweeping its second straight SWAC series.
The UAPB baseball team beat Southern 5-4 at the Torii Hunter Baseball Complex for its sixth straight conference win.
UAPB coach Logan Stout said his players are playing with more confidence than earlier in the year.
“I think they’re finally starting to see in themselves what the coaching staff saw in them,” Stout said. “They’re starting to believe, ‘Ok, Coach doesn’t just believe in us. We actually can do this,’ and 99.99 percent of it is if you think you can, you’re right. If you think you can’t, you’re right. So, they think they can, and they’re doing it.”
In the first two games of the series, UAPB (11-27, 9-6 SWAC) battered Southern pitching, scoring a combined 28 runs across 13 innings in a pair of run-rule wins.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Southern starter Nick Luckett (7-3) ended UAPB’s four-game streak of scoring double digit runs in SWAC games. He pitched 7.0 innings and allowed 5 runs on 10 hits with four walks and four strikeouts.
Luckett allowed 1 run the first two times through the UAPB batting order, but UAPB finally got to him the third time through the lineup.
Southern (15-23, 7-11) led 3-1 entering the bottom of the fifth inning. UAPB designated hitter Carlos Rodriguez-Velez tied the game with a 2-RBI double, then catcher Brant Voth drove him home on a single to give UAPB its first lead of the day, 4-3.
Southern later tied the game in the seventh on an RBI single by left fielder Cardell Thibodeaux, but UAPB first baseman Ben VanMaanen hit a single in the bottom of the seventh to drive in the game-winning run. Voth collided with SU third baseman Kelcey White while rounding third on the play and was granted home plate on an interference call.
Voth hit 2 for 2 with 2 RBI and a run with two walks. Rodriguez-Velez hit 2 for 5 with 2 RBI and a run. Across all three games, Rodriguez-Velez drove in 8 RBI, while Voth had 7.
Typical starting catcher Vinny Saumell missed his seventh straight game since being injured by a pitch against Lamar on April 9. Voth, who has mostly played catcher during his career but has seven starts as a pitcher this season, caught all three games this weekend with Saumell out. That left him unavailable to pitch.
Stout said he hopes to get Saumell back in a week.
“Missing Vinny hurts, because then we can’t pitch Brant,” Stout said. “Vinny, obviously, is our four-hole hitter. So, missing his bat, missing his glove, missing his arm, missing his leadership has been tough, but next man up. Our guys have now swept, I guess what, two series without Vinny? So, I’m proud of them.”
In Voth’s stead, right-hander Emerson Lott made his first start of the season. He pitched 2.1 innings and allowed 3 runs, 1 earned, on one hit with two walks and three strikeouts.
UAPB pulled him with a 3-1 deficit in the third inning, but UAPB had a full bullpen available after only needing one inning from the pen in the first two games of the series.
Nate Monceaux allowed 1 run in 3.2 innings before Steffan Fak (2-2) and Ashton Davis combined for three scoreless innings to end the game. Davis earned his first save of the year with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.
Fak said the UAPB pitching staff has been more focused the past two weekends.
“I think we’ve decided to really lock in the past couple of weeks and really do what we need to do as pitchers and hit spots,” Fak said. “Just be in the moment, and I think that’s what every single one of us as a staff has really been really good at the past couple of weeks. Just being in the moment and just throwing the baseball, throwing strikes.”
This was UAPB’s first time sweeping Southern since March 2014 in Baton Rouge. After sweeping Texas Southern last week, this sweep marked the first time UAPB has swept consecutive SWAC series since 2016.