Central Arkansas won five games in the Southland Conference Tournament to reach its first NCAA Tournament.
Senior catcher Michael Marietta believes the Bears can pull off a similar feat over the next two weeks, beginning today against Mississippi State in a first-round game in the Starkville (Miss.) Regional at Dudy Noble Field.
“It comes down to five games, pretty much,” Marietta said. “You win three in the regional and two in the Super Regional. You win five games, you go to the College World Series. We just won five games. We look at it that way.
“It is a little more competition. The further you go, the more competition.”
The thought of UCA playing in the NCAA Tournament was a distant one just three years ago, but when the school hired Coach Allen Gum away from Southern Arkansas University in June 2010, he brought a championship mind-set with him.
Gum led SAU to three NCAA Division II tournaments (2008-2010) before heading to Conway to rebuild the Bears’ program.
UCA moved from Division II to Division I before the 2007 season and didn’t manage a winning season at the Division-I level until this season. The Bears went 24-29 in 2011, 25-30 last season and advanced to their first Southland Tournament this season.
In fact, the school hadn’t played in a national postseason tournament since 1959, when it was still a member of the NAIA, before it clinched its NCAA Tournament berth last Saturday with a victory against Southeastern Louisiana in the championship game in Sugar Land, Texas.
Gum said he knew there was work to be done when he took the UCA job. Now, three years later, all that work has been rewarded.
“Some people may think, oh, it’s impossible, sometimes, but all you have to do is link a lot of possibles together and link the right people,” Gum said. “It doesn’t have to be the most talented people, but linking the right people together. If you do that, sometimes these things happen.”
Marietta became a starter this season after backing up Travis Snider and has delivered, batting .315 with 4 home runs and driving in a team high 56 runs while helping the pitching staff become the best in the Southland Conference with a 2.78 ERA.
“My freshman year we had 19 wins,” Marietta said. “I never would have thought this program would be here now. They brought in Coach Gum. Just for Coach Gum and the coaching staff to do that in three years, it’s phenomenal.”
UCA will pitch senior right-hander Caleb McClanahan (10-5, 2.17 ERA) today against the Bulldogs. Mississippi State beat McClanahan 4-2 in the first game of a three-game series in March before UCA came back to win the next two games, 7-5 in 10 innings and 7-3, to win the series.
“I want some revenge against them,” McClanahan said. “We’ll see what happens.”
The Bears were ranked in the Baseball America top 25 poll earlier this season before finishing 12-15 in the Southland, earning the No. 7 seed in the league tournament. Gum admitted that his team didn’t handle the process of being ranked well, but now the players have another chance at dealing with increased attention.
“We struggled over the last month of the year. We’ve been through that,” Gum said. “No question, I can tell by the guys it’s the second time through the season with this. We’re handling it a lot better. People tell you how great you are and you don’t know how to handle that.
“I’m proud of our guys representing the university so well and they’re representing the fans and the state, but our heads are little more level.”
The winner of the Starkville Regional will face the winner of the Charlottesville (Va.) Regional.
“We just have to go in there and play free, like we always do, stick to the game plan,” junior center fielder Jonathan Davis said. “Mississippi State is a great team. I do believe they’re going to compete because they’re going to want to get back at us.
“It’s a great accomplishment. We can compete with the best. We’ve seen that all year. This is our opportunity to continue to make a name for this program, and that’s what we’re going to try to do in Starkville.”
STARKVILLE REGIONAL CAPSULES
MISSISSIPPI STATE
MASCOT Bulldogs RECORD 43-17 (fifth in SEC) SEED No. 1 HOW THEY GOT HERE At-large bid from SEC COACH John Cohen (490-324-1 in 14 seasons at Mississippi State, Kentucky and Northwestern [La.] State) TEAM BATTING AVERAGE .296 (41st nationally) TEAM ERA 2.77 (13th) TEAM FIELDING PERCENTAGE .975 (35th) KEY PLAYERS CF Hunter Renfroe (.352, 15 HR, 54 RBI); SS Adam Frazier (.352, 30 RBI); DH Alex Detz (.312, 30 RBI); RHP Kendall Graveman (5-5, 3.04 ERA) NOTEWORTHY Mississippi State was 2-2 this season against teams in the Starkville Regional. The Bulldogs lost 2 of 3 to Central Arkansas at Dudy Noble Field, but beat South Alabama 6-4 in Mobile, Ala., on April 2 in their first road game.
SOUTH ALABAMA
MASCOTS Jaguars RECORD 42-18 (tied for second in the Sun Belt Conference) SEED No. 2 HOW THEY GOT HERE At-large bid from Sun Belt COACH Mark Calvi (65-52 in two seasons at South Alabama) TEAM BATTING AVERAGE .302 (29th nationally) TEAM ERA 4.21 (139th) TEAM FIELDING PERCENTAGE .967 (123rd) KEY PLAYERS 1B Jordan Patterson (.360, 49 RBI, 25 2B); 1B Dustin Dalken (.329, 8 HR, 39 RBI); RF Nolan Earley (.323, 58 RBI); RHP Matt Bell (6-1, 3.52 ERA) NOTEWORTHY South Alabama hasn’t played in the NCAA Tournament since 2006. The Jaguars tied Troy for second in conference play but lost to Louisiana-Lafayette in the conference semifinals.
MERCER RECORD 43-16 (first in Atlantic Sun Conference) SEED No. 3 HOW THEY GOT HERE At-large bid from Atlantic Sun COACH Craig Gibson (278-235 in 10 seasons at Mercer) TEAM BATTING AVERAGE .301 (30th nationally) TEAM ERA 4.06 (116th) TEAM FIELDING PERCENTAGE .982 (first) KEY PLAYERS DH Nick Backlund (.322, 13 HR, 65 RBI); 3B Chesny Young (.394, 4 HR, 61 RBI); RF Derrick Workman (.345, 9 HR, 48 RBI); RHP Brandon Barker (7-1, 2.35 ERA) NOTEWORTHY This is the Bears’ second NCAA Tournament appearance. It is the first at-large bid the school has received.
CENTRAL ARKANSAS
RECORD 39-20 (seventh in Southland Conference) SEED No. 4 HOW THEY GOT HERE Won Southland Conference Tournament to earn an automatic bid COACH Allen Gum (314-147 in eight seasons at Central Arkansas and Southern Arkansas) TEAM BATTING AVERAGE .268 (172nd nationally) TEAM ERA 2.78 (15th) TEAM FIELDING PERCENTAGE .971 (74th) KEY PLAYERS RF Forrestt Allday (.383, 35 RBI, 56 R); C Michael Marietta (.315, 4 HR, 56 RBI); CF Jonathan Davis (.276, 48 RBI, 23 SB); RHP Caleb McClanahan (10-5, 2.17 ERA) NOTEWORTHY Central Arkansas is making its first NCAA Tournament appearance. The school moved to NCAA Division I for the 2007 season and has only been eligible for postseason play since 2011.
Today’s games
BLACKSBURG, VA.
At English Field Coastal Carolina (37-21) vs. Oklahoma (40-19), noon UConn (40-19) at Virginia Tech (38-20), 4:30 p.m.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA.
At Davenport Field Army (29-21) at Virginia (47-10), noon Elon (32-28) vs. UNC Wilmington (37-21), 5 p.m.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.
At Boshamer Stadium Towson (29-28) vs. Florida Atlantic (39-20), noon Canisius (42-15) at North Carolina (52-8), 5 p.m.
RALEIGH, N.C.
At Doak Field William & Mary (37-22) vs. Mississippi (37-22), 1 p.m.
Binghamton (30-23) at N.C. State (44-14), 6 p.m.
COLUMBIA, S.C.
At Carolina Stadium Liberty (34-27) vs. Clemson (39-20), noon Saint Louis (41-19) at South Carolina (39-18), 6 p.m.
LOUISVILLE, KY.
At Jim Patterson Stadium Oklahoma State (39-17) vs. Miami (36-23), 1 p.m.
Bowling Green (24-29) at Louisville (46-12), 5 p.m.
TALLAHASSEE, FLA.
At Dick Howser Stadium Troy (40-18) vs. Alabama (34-26), 11 a.m.
Savannah State (33-21) at Florida State (44-15), 4 p.m.
BLOOMINGTON, IND.
At Bart Kaufman Field Florida (29-28) vs. Austin Peay (45-13), noon Valparaiso (31-26) at Indiana (43-14), 6 p.m.
NASHVILLE, TENN.
At Hawkins Field Illinois (34-18) vs. Georgia Tech (34-25), 1 p.m.
ETSU (36-22) at Vanderbilt (51-9), 6 p.m.
STARKVILLE, MISS.
At Dudy Noble Field Mercer (43-16) vs. South Alabama (42-18), 2 p.m.
Central Arkansas (39-20) at Mississippi State (43-17), 7 p.m.
BATON ROUGE At Alex Box Stadium Jackson State (34-20) at LSU (52-9), 2 p.m.
Sam Houston State (37-20) vs. Louisiana-Lafayette (41-18), 7 p.m.
MANHATTAN, KAN.
At Tointon Family Stadium Wichita State (39-26) at Kansas State (41-17), 2 p.m.
Bryant (44-16-1) vs. Arkansas (37-20), 7 p.m.
EUGENE, ORE.
At PK Park San Fran. (34-22) vs. Rice (41-17), 4 p.m.
South Dakota State (35-22) at Oregon (45-14), 8 p.m.
CORVALLIS, ORE.
At Goss Stadium UC Santa Barbara (34-23) vs. Texas A&M (32-27), 2 p.m.
UTSA (35-23) at Oregon State (45-10), 7 p.m.
FULLERTON, CALIF.
At Goodwin Field New Mexico (37-20) vs. Arizona State (35-20-1), 6 p.m.
Columbia (27-19) at Cal State Fullerton (48-8), 10 p.m.
LOS ANGELES
At Jackie Robinson Stadium San Diego (35-23) vs. Cal Poly (39-17), 4 p.m.
San Diego State (31-29) at UCLA (39-17), 8 p.m.
Sports, Pages 19 on 05/31/2013