SUN BELT

UALR 10, TROY 4

Bryson Thionnet and Sam Vogel each hit home runs, Justin Steelmon hit another and UALR captured a series victory on Sunday at Gary Hogan Field in Little Rock.

All three homered in the first inning to give UALR a 5-1 lead and set it on its way to a Sunday victory.

Steelmon’s home run and Thionnet’s first of the game came on consecutive at bats in the first inning. Steelmon’s homer, his first of the year, gave UALR (16-21, 5-13) a 3-0 lead and Thionnet made it 4-1 with his homer to left-center. Then, two batters later, Vogel’s first home run made it 5-1.

Thionnet’s two-run home run in the fifth was his seventh of the year and his 20th for his career, tying him for second all-time at UALR. Vogel’s second home run, his third of the season, capped the scoring in the eighth.

UALR’s season-high five home runs came a day after it failed to score in a 3-0 loss in 10 innings.

Tanner Rockwell went 2 for 3 with 1 RBI and 3 runs scored, while Austin Pfeiffer also had two hits for UALR to help starter Cameron Allen. The junior allowed 4 runs on 11 hits and struck out 7 in 7 2/3 innings to improve to 4-3.

David Hall, who won Saturday’s game with a three-run home run in the 10th, hit his eighth home run of the season in the eighth inning for Troy (20-20, 7-10).

ARKANSAS STATE 10, LOUISIANA-MONROE 9

Zach Maggio beat a throw home to cap Arkansas State’s four-run bottom of the ninth to win its sixth consecutive game and complete a weekend sweep of Louisiana-Monroe on Sunday at Tomlinson Stadium in Jonesboro.

While on third base with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the ninth, Ty Michelotti’s slow ground ball was fielded by Louisiana-Monroe second baseman Josh Faciane, whose throw home couldn’t beat Maggio to prevent the winning run.

ASU (24-16, 13-5) entered the bottom of the ninth trailing 9-6. Collin Massanelli led off with a walk, moved to second when Dustin Jones was hit by a pitch and scored on an error. Maggio then reached on a fielder’s choice that scored Jones to make it 9-8, and the game was tied when Matt Burgess’ single scored Luke Wilcoxson.

Burgess finished 3 for 4 with 2 RBI, while Austin Baker, Michelotti and Jones all drove in two runs each.

ASU starter Bradley Wallace held Louisiana-Monroe (16-26, 7-11) to 1 earned run on 2 hits, but lasted only 4 innings while striking out 5. Coulton Lee earned the victory after relieving Colton Kibler with two outs in the ninth.

SUNDAY’S GAMES UALR 10, Troy 4 Arkansas State 10, La.-Monroe 9 W. Kentucky 6, South Alabama 3 Texas State 4, Georgia State 1 UT-Arlington 5, La.-Lafayette 4

Sports, Pages 17 on 04/21/2014