All facets working for Bears
The University of Central Arkansas was coming off a 4-2 loss to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and had a three-game series looming against the Southland Conference’s top team, Sam Houston State.
The Bears put the Trojans’ loss on April 16 at Little Rock’s Gary Hogan Field behind them, then went on to sweep Sam Houston State in three games Friday and Saturday at Bear Stadium in Conway.
UCA won a doubleheader 6-1 and 4-1 on Friday, then took the final game 6-2 on Saturday.
“I felt like we responded really well [from the UALR loss],” Bears Coach Allen Gum said. “We played a complete game. For a three-game stretch, we played as well as we’ve played all season. The pitching was outstanding. The defense was outstanding.
“We got on. We moved runners. We got runners on third with less than two outs. We did it for 27 innings. It was a great total team effort.”
Starting pitchers Cody Davenport, Noah Cameron and Brad Verel each pitched at least 62/3 innings in their outings, allowing a combined 4 runs on 15 hits.
“Those guys threw really well,” Gum said. “We looked at it. Every arm we threw had 72 percent first-pitch strikes. They competed in the zone. We played good defense. I was proud of them. We went after them.”
Davenport pitched a complete-game four-hitter in Friday’s first game against Sam Houston State. He allowed one run.
“Cody is just a workhorse,” Gum said. “He’s a guy that wants to go out there and compete. He wants to pitch nine innings. It’s hard to get the baseball out of his hands.
“He gets better as the game goes on. He leads the way for the other pitchers.”
Cameron allowed 1 run on 6 hits in 62/3 innings in Friday’s second game. Verel turned around Saturday and gave up 2 runs on 5 hits in 7 innings for the Bears.
UCA (21-20, 11-7 Southland) also defeated the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff 13-3 on Tuesday in Pine Bluff behind a 14-hit effort. Josh Ragan, Kolby Johnson, Joshmar Doran and Christian Brasher each had two hits for the Bears.
The Bears open a threegame series at Houston Baptist (20-20, 7-11) today in Houston.