Arkansas State baseball dominated on offense with their highest scoring game of the season against the University of Central Arkansas.

In a run-rule decision at the bottom of the seventh, the Red Wolves ended with 20 runs Tuesday, including 16 in the fourth inning alone.

Coming off a cooled down weekend at-bat against University of Louisiana-Monroe, A-State poised themselves to bounce back in a match against an in-state rival. UCA came out with a two RBI homer at the top of the first, marking two of three earned runs given up by starting pitcher Colin Maloney. 

Maloney’s early struggles continued from here, giving up another run in the third inning before getting swapped out for backup Jelle van der Lelie. Lelie held down the mound for the fourth inning, being one of two pitchers from A-State’s bullpen to not give up any hits in the game. 

While both Maloney and the backups let up 10 runs in the match, their weaknesses paled in comparison to the collapse from UCA’s pitching room. Starting pitcher JB Williams limited the A-State batting to only three hits and three runs through the first three innings. 

In those periods, third baseman Cougar Cooke hit an RBI single that gave shortstop Patrick Engskov the green light to score from second base while right fielder Evan Griffis smashed a homer out of the park to bat in two runs. The game stayed in reach going into the fourth with the Bears leading 5-2, but that would quickly change in favor of the Red Wolves.

While UCA went scoreless to start off the inning, A-State quickly loaded the bases up. The Bears’ pitching fell apart at the seams at this point as they allowed three HBP walks, giving up three runs to the Red Wolves on errors alone. Even after swapping through four different pitchers in the fourth, the same mistakes plagued UCA’s mound, giving up another HBP walk and allowing runners to steal bases three times.

By the time the Bears got the final out of the fourth, A-State went through their batting rotation twice and scored a season high 16 runs in a single period. The Red Wolves scored more in this inning alone than the entire past weekend in Monroe and the most in an inning since 2011. 

First baseman Cason Campbell, second baseman Lane Walton, and Cooke all hit three RBI here with Walton and Cooke tying for a game high four with Bears third baseman Jack Runsick.

Following the complete collapse in the fourth, the Bears’ offense avoided the run rule decision in the fifth with two runs and three in the sixth while A-State stagnated at-bat. However, the same pitching mistakes spelled the end of the game at the bottom of the seventh as A-State continued to take advantage of UCA’s struggles. 

Cooke and pinch hitter Cross Jumper filled the bases following two walks and a stolen base when Walton hit his fourth RBI of the game to send the third baseman and the Bears home.

With this win against UCA, the Red Wolves are 10 games above .500 for the first time in 14 years. A-State is back in Louisiana this weekend to face off against the Ragin’ Cajuns for another conference series match-up.

Categories: Sports