Chris Crutchfield hired as assistant basketball coach at Arkansas.

UALR 8, ARKANSAS STATE 0

JONESBORO — A barrage of hits from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and its own undoing defensively eliminated Arkansas State University from playing in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.

The Trojans recorded 17 hits and took advantage of five errors by the Red Wolves in an 8-0 victory Friday night at Tomlinson Stadium-Kell Field.

UALR (27-26, 17-11 Sun Belt), which has won six of its past seven games, had five players with more than one hit.

Right fielder Ryan Benavidez, third baseman Nick Perez and left fielder Troy Alexander all went 3 for 5 for the Trojans. Perez drove in three runs, while Alexander had two RBI. Designated hitter Riley Pittman and shortstop Christian Reyes each had two hits for UALR.

“They came into the park with a really good plan,” UALR Coach Chris Curry said. “We jumped out early and never looked back.”

With Friday’s loss, ASU (26-28, 11-18) — which started 8-2 in the Sun Belt — was eliminated from the league tournament beginning Tuesday in Conway, S.C. It’s the first time since 2009, ASU Coach Tommy Raffo’s first season, that the Red Wolves won’t be in the tournament.

“We didn’t earn it,” Raffo said. “We were very good in the first half of the season. The second half, we were poor. It wasn’t as good as we wanted it to be. We were out of sync. Good pitching, no hitting. Hitting, maybe no pitching and fielding. It was out of sync for us in the second half.”

Trojans right-hander Hayden Arnold (5-2) turned in his team’s second consecutive solid outing in the series. After ace Chandler

Fidel went 81/3 innings and struck out 9 in a no-decision Thursday, Arnold allowed 3 hits in 7 innings Friday. He threw 100 pitches, 63 for strikes, and struck out 2 while walking no one.

“He kept the ball down,” Curry said. “We challenged him to work quickly and help his defense out. We made no errors tonight, which is important for us.”

UALR took advantage of two ASU errors in the top of the second inning to take a 2-0 lead.

Perez led off with a base hit, then catcher Ramon Padilla reached on a throwing error by ASU second baseman Tyler Duncan. Two batters later, center fielder Eldrige Figueroa hit an RBI single to right field to give the Trojans a 1-0 lead, scoring Perez.

With Benavidez at the plate, Reyes was in a rundown between first and second, but Red Wolves first baseman Kyle MacDonald dropped the ball as he attempted to tag Reyes, allowing Padilla to come home for a 2-0 lead.

Perez’s RBI single in the top of the third inning made it 3-0 Trojans.

The Trojans added two more runs in the top of the fifth inning to extend their lead to 5-0. Benavidez and

first baseman James Gann each had base hits to chase ASU starter Zach Jackson, then reliever Zech Jarrard gave up an RBI double to Alexander to make it 4-0. Perez followed with a run-scoring single for a 5-0 advantage.

UALR stretched its lead to 7-0 in the bottom of the eighth inning when MacDonald couldn’t handle Alexander’s groundball at first base, resulting in the Red Wolves’ fourth error of the game. Benavidez and Pittman, who reached on one-out singles, respectively, scored on the play.

Then, third baseman Alex Howard was charged with ASU’s fifth error as he couldn’t come up with Perez’s groundball, allowing Garrett Scott to score for an 8-0 advantage.

Jackson (6-5) allowed 5 runs, 4 earned, on 9 hits in 41/3 innings for the Red Wolves, who used six pitchers Friday night.

Duncan had two hits to lead ASU.