Balanced performance powers Arkansas State past Little Rock

Balanced performance powers A-state past Little Rock

JONESBORO – In baseball, a winning formula typically consists of quality pitching and stringing together hits at the plate.

That happened for Arkansas State baseball on Thursday night, as Brandon Hudson delivered a quality start in his first Sun

Belt Conference outing while Drew Tipton of Bryant led the way offensively with four hits to propel the Red Wolves (6-14, 1-3 SBC) to a 10-2 victory over Little Rock Thursday night at Tomlinson Stadium-kell Field.

Hudson dealt A-state’s first quality start of the season with 6.0 innings pitched, allowing two runs on four hits to move to 2-0 on the season. The Roland, Arkansas, native struck out three Trojans (12-9, 3-1) and ended his outing by retiring the last 10 batters he faced before giving way to Benton’s Jack Jumper. Jumper kept the momentum going, retiring 9 of the 10 he faced to earn the three-inning save.

Tipton tallied four hits in five at-bats, scoring a careerhigh four times, including a triple off the top of the wall in left-center field to start a 6-run seventh inning.

Both of Little Rock’s runs came via the long ball as Tyler Williams belted a two-out solo homer in the first to put the Trojans ahead 1-0. A sac fly by Tyler

Duncan drove in Tipton in the bottom of the inning to tie things at a run apiece.

The Trojans’ second homer came off the bat of Kenny Rodriguez, who led off the inning with the big fly. Hudson would settle in after that, retiring 14 of the next 15 batters before giving way to Jumper in the seventh.

A-state plated two more in the third on a 2-run double by Duncan then one more in the fifth on a sac fly by Klutts.

In the seventh, Tipton nearly missed a round-tripper as he ripped a triple off the top of the wall and slid safely into third with a one-out triple. That began a 6-run outburst that made it 10-2 after Tipton scored on the wild pitch. A single by Jaylon Deshazier then scored Liam Hicks before Klutts scored on a throwing error at the plate.

Blake Mccutchen then ripped a 2-run single back up the middle to drive in Deshazier and Duncan. Skylar Culver then scored on a wild pitch to end the scoring for the night.

Preseason Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Year Aaron Funk took the loss in the start for the Trojans, tossing 4.0 innings and allowing three runs on five hits.

NEXT UP

A-state looks to clinch the series tonight in Game 2 of the series versus the Trojans. First pitch at Tomlinson Stadium-kell Field is slated for 6 p.m. on ESPN+.