CONWAY - Central Arkansas Coach Allen Gum is succinct when it comes to his baseball team’s ability to get on base.
“There’s kings and king makers,” Gum said. “You don’t know what day that’s going to bring. Today, it might be you’re a king maker. You take your two walks and let the guy behind you be the king. He drives in the run or the winning run or whatever the case is.
“We talk about those things. It’s nothing too complicated, that’s for sure.”
The Bears’ ability to get on base has made life complicated for opponents.
UCA’s success at getting on base was a big factor in its run to the Southland Conference Tournament championship, which earned it a spot in the NCAA Tournament. The Bears (39-20) will play Mississippi State (43-17) at 7 p.m. Friday in a first-round game at Starkville, Miss.
UCA leads the nation in walks (345), is third in hit by pitches (117), 12th in on base percentage (.404) and 16th in runs scored (407).It also is tied with Oregon for most sacrifice bunts (92).
Leadoff hitter Forrestt Allday, a first-team All-Southland selection who is batting .383 with 3 home runs, 35 RBI and a team-high 56 runs scored, has bought into Gum’s philosophy.
“You have to get on base to score - walks, sacrifice bunts, moving runners over into scoring position and then driving them in,” said Allday, who is fourth in the nation with an on-base percentage of .518. “That’s what the game is all about, scoring runs.”
Jonathan Davis, a junior center fielder from Camden who bats second, credits the Bears’ offensive success to getting quality at-bats.
“We have great batters,” said Davis, who is batting .276 with 3 home runs, 48 RBI and 23 stolen bases. “When we’re up there, we want to have quality ABs. Not necessarily getting a hit always, but getting on base and getting the runners over and driving them in. That’s what we strive to do.”
It took a while for some players to get used to Gum’s philosophy, but Davis said he is sold on it now.
“Every pitch, you want to be ready to hit,” Davis said. “No matter what pitch it is, you want to be ready to hit it. At the last minute, you want to say, ‘No, no, no. Yes, yes, yes. No. Yes, yes, yes.’
“I feel like if you’re ready to hit every pitch, you’ll be more focused at the plate. You candecipher whether or not it’s a ball or strike. That’s what we do a good job of.”
Allday said the Bears’ goal is to get the opponent’s starting pitcher to around 100 pitches by the fifth inning. Working the count has helped UCA outscore opponents 177-105 after the fifth inning, and the Bears are 32-4 when leading after six innings.
“Getting into the bullpen will help us win the game,” he said. “If you get their stud pitcher out of the game, then it’s going to be easier for us to score runs.”
Gum said his offensive philosophy was influenced by Hall of Famer Ted Williams, whom Gum refers to as the greatest hitter ever.
“Ted Williams always said good hitters hit good pitches,” Gum said. “It’s a mind-set of looking for your pitch, finding a good pitch and having the ability to say no to ones that aren’t quite there. That’s it.
“We want to make sure we’re hitting good pitches and hitting pitches that we can handle.”
Sports, Pages 17 on 05/29/2013