UAPB Coach Carlos James and the Lions baseball team get validation.
Carlos James has a saying every time his Arkansas- Pine Bluff baseball team gets off a bus to play an SEC school on its home field.
“It’s 4.8 versus 11.7 and a million dollars,” James said, referring to the number of scholarships UAPB is allotted because of budget restrictions compared to the deeper pockets of SEC schools.
Twice this season, UAPB has come out on top against those programs.
The Golden Lions ( 10- 10) beat Missouri 8- 3 on Tuesday in Columbia, Mo., a game in which the Tigers entered ranked 23rd nationally by Collegiate Baseball. The victory came three weeks after UAPB beat then- No. 7 Mississippi State 3- 2 in Starkville, Miss.
The two victories are the school’s first over major conference opponents since James took over as the Golden Lions’ coach in 2011, and James said it is even more proof of the progress his program has made than the Southwestern Athletic Conference Western Division championship the team won last year.
“It just kind of validates everything that we believe in our program,” James said.
It was seen March 18, too, when UAPB led Ole Miss 6- 4 going into the ninth inning of a 7- 6 loss in Oxford, Miss.
“I knew then, that game right there solidified where we want to be,” James said. “My kids were upset. To go from barely being able to play with those schools and now your kids are walking out of Ole Miss and they’re crying because they lost, we’re going into games believing wholeheartedly that they’re going to win.”
Considering UAPB can’t play in the SWAC Tournament or have a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament because of NCAA sanctions handed down last fall, James said games against major conference schools are the highlights of their season.
James said games against Mississippi State, Ole Miss and two against Missouri — UAPB lost 9- 3 Wednesday — are being treated as “our regionals.” UAPB begins a three- game series at New Orleans tonight and has one such game left, the April 29 season finale against Kansas.
“That’s how we view them,” James said. “We’re 2- 2 in the regionals, and we’ve got Kansas coming up. That’s our tournament for this year.”