SUNDAY’S STATE DIV. I GAMES

SUN BELT

ARKANSAS STATE 8, MISSOURI STATE 7

Daedrick Cail’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh inning proved the decider as Arkansas State avoided a sweep at the hands of Missouri State on Sunday afternoon in Jonesboro at Tomlinson Stadium.

Red Wolf reliever and Brookland native Jake Algee retired all six Bears he faced in the eighth and ninth innings, finishing with back-to-back strikeouts to earn his first career save for ASU (7-5)

Missouri State (7-4) struck for six runs in the top of the seventh after trailing 7-1, the big blow coming for the visitors on Mason Hull’s grand slam.

The Bears’ rally came after the Red Wolves had scored a pair in the fifth inning and four more runs in the sixth, an outburst highlighted by two-run doubles from Kody Darcy and Cail.

OHIO VALLEY

UALR 18, VALPARAISO 8 (7)

Pounding out 14 runs in the first three innings Sunday afternoon, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock avoided a sweep against Valparaiso at Gary Hogan Field in Little Rock.

The first five Trojans reached base in the bottom of the first, with Luke Pectol coming across on a wild pitch to open the scoring. Nico Baumbaugh then continued his scorching weekend with an RBI double and Skyler Trevino and Ben Harmon added run-scoring singles as UALR (5-4) led the Beacons 5-0 early.

The Trojans scored twice more in the second, then piled on seven runs in the third inning, highlighted by a pair of RBI doubles from Harmon and Pectol before Jake Wright clubbed a grand slam that put the hosts up 14-0.

Valparaiso (6-3), down 15-0 through four, chipped back with multiple-run innings in its last three at-bats, but UALR scored single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, walking off the run-rule victory on Andrew Pickering’s one-out RBI single in the seventh.

ASUN

CENTRAL ARKANSAS 22, ILLINOIS STATE 10

The University of Central Arkansas offense broke out Sunday to clinch a series win over Illinois State at Bear Field in Conway.

The Bears (5-6) scored more runs Sunday than in their past five games combined to beat the Redbirds (5-6).

UCA trailed 6-0 after Illinois State hit a grand slam in a first inning that started with four consecutive walks.

Kolby Johnson hit a grand slam of his own as one of four Bears to hit home runs, tying the second-most in a single game in school history. Johnson led UCA with five RBI.

A.J. Mendiola hit two home runs for the Bears, totaling four RBI. Evan Hafley and Tanner Leonard also hit home runs.

Illinois State used nine pitchers, seven of which allowed at least one run.