CONWAY - More than two months ago, Central Arkansas’ baseball team earned national attention by winning a weekend series against Mississippi State.
The stakes will be higher this weekend when the two teams meet in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
UCA players gathered Monday morning in the Bear Hall suites at Estes Stadium, where they learned they will face Mississippi State in an opening-round game at 7 p.m. Friday at Dudy Noble Field in Starkville, Miss. The Bears are seeded No. 4, while Mississippi State is the No. 1 seed and one of 16 regional hosts in the 64-team tournament.
No. 2 South Alabama (42-18) and No. 3 Mercer (43-16) will play in Starkville at 2 p.m.Friday. The winner of Friday’s games will meet at 7 p.m. Saturday, and the losers will face each other in an elimination game at 2 p.m. Saturday.
The Bears (39-20), who won five consecutive games to win the Southland Conference Tournament last week, beat Mississippi State (43-17) twice in a three-game series March 8-10 in Starkville. They lost the first game 4-2 on March 8 before winning 7-5 in 10 innings March 9 and 7-3 on March 10. The series victory helped UCA earn a spot in the Collegiate Baseball poll, and the Bears moved into Baseball America’s poll one week later after a series victory against Southern Miss.
UCA has won 3 of 4 against the Bulldogs all time, including a 2-0 victory in 2012.
“We’re not scared of anybody,” said UCA senior right fielder Forrestt Allday, who is batting .383 with 3 home runs and 35 RBI. “Coming into that hostile environment, from the first pitch, we were ready and focused. When we play our brand of baseball, when we pitch the way we should, when we field the way we should and when we hit the way we should, we can play with anybody in the country and beat anybody in the country.”
Several college baseball websites had UCA projected to play in the regionals at Manhattan, Kan., or Nashville, Tenn., but Bears Coach Allen Gum said he is content with the Bears playing the Bulldogs again.
“We’ve been there. We’ve played well there,” said Gum, who is in his third season with the Bears. “We feel comfortable over there. I know it’s a different situation for sure, but we’re excited about that trip.”
Big West Conference Commissioner and NCAA selection committee chairman Dennis Farrell said on a teleconference call Monday that the rematch was a matter of geography.
“We have some bracketing parameters that we’re required to adhere to by NCAA policy,” Farrell said. “So that was put together by those parameters.”
Senior catcher Michael Marietta (.315, 4 home runs, 56 RBI) compares the Bears’ match-up to playing in a conference tournament because of the familiarity with the Bulldogs.
“You’ve seen all the teams in a three-game series,” Marietta said. “You know their arms, how they’re going to swing it. We know how they’re going to play. They for sure want to come out for blood against us because we’ve beat them the last two years.”
UCA started the season 18-3 but finished just 12-15 in conference play and was the No. 7 seed in last week’s conference tournament in Sugar Land, Texas. A loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi left the Bears in the losers bracket, but they won five consecutive games and freshman Connor Gilmore threw a two-hit shutout in a 4-0 victory over Southeastern Louisiana in the championship game Saturday night to secure an NCAA Tournament bid.
“We strung it together at the end and we’re getting hot at the right time,” Allday said. “So watch out.”
Sports, Pages 13 on 05/28/2013