Sun Belt Conference Weekly News and Notes (Full PDF)
2014 Sun Belt Conference Media Guide
2014 Sun Belt Conference Composite Schedule
2014 Sun Belt Conference Standings
2014 Sun Belt Conference Statistics
Around the Sun Belt Conference
UT Arlington's duo of Ryan Bottger and Daniel Milliman picked up this week's Sun Belt Conference Baseball Player/Pitcher of the Week awards, respectively, after leading the Mavericks to a 4-0 week, including a 14-3 win over Baylor and a sweep of South Alabama.
Bottger provided the offense knocking in nine RBI over the four games on seven hits - three of which were doubles and one home run. The Bethany, Oklahoma native also scored five runs on the week.
Bottger's teammate, Milliman, made his first two starts last week - one against Baylor and the other in the series finale with South Alabama. Milliman opened the week with a four-inning effort and departed with a big lead in Tuesday’s contest vs. Baylor. He backed that start up with a key performance in the series finale against South Alabama when the right-hander pitched six innings of scoreless ball to help the Mavs sweep its first SBC series.
Milliman allowed just three hits throughout his two starts and gave up just one run while striking out four and walking one.
UL Monroe came on strong this week as the Warhawks swept through UALR to improve to 4-5 in league play. This week ULM will take on SEC foe Alabama and Nicholls State in midweek action before heading to the recently hot UTA campus for a three-game set with the Mavs.
A-State earned a series win over Texas State - taking two of three from the Bobcats over the week, while UL Lafayette - ranked No. 1 all last week - took two of three from WKU. The Cajuns fell just a bit in the rankings with the loss to the Toppers in their opening game of the series.
This week the Cajuns host in-state rivale Tulane in midweek action before heading out to Troy for a series this weekend. Troy dropped two of three in Atlanta last weekend, salving the sweep by winning handily on Sunday.
Week 7 Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week
Ryan Bottger (UT Arlington, Junior, OF)
Bottger, a transfer from Bethany, Okla, helped the Mavericks spark their 4-0 record last week, the team’s longest winning streak of the season. Bottger opened the week with a 3-for-5 effort vs. Big 12 opponent Baylor as the Mavericks cruised to their largest win over the Bears since 1987. Bottger then helped UTA to its first-ever sweep of a SBC team when the Mavs took all three from South Alabama. The outfielder knocked in seven RBI in the series, scored two runs and was 4-for-12 during the trip with a homer and three walks. Bottger hit .412 over the week with nine RBI overall and scored five times.
Week 7 Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Week
Daniel Milliman (UT Arlington, Senior, RHP)
Milliman, a senior from Fort Worth, Texas, provided UTA with a spark from the pitcher’s mound after earning his second and third wins of the season in his first two starts. Milliman opened the week with a four-inning effort and departed with a big lead in Tuesday’s contest vs. Baylor. He backed that start up with a key performance in the series finale against South Alabama when the right-hander pitched six innings of scoreless ball to help the Mavs sweep its first SBC series. Milliman allowed just three hits throughout his two starts and gave up just one run while striking out four and walking one. He finished with a 0.90 ERA for the week to improve to 3-0 for the season.
Player of the Week Archive
2.17 - David Hall, Troy
2.24 - Scott Wilcox, WKU
3.03 - Drew Merten, UALR
3.10 - Jace Conrad, UL Lafayette
3.17 - Nic Wilson, Georgia State
3.24 - Seth Harrison, UL Lafayette
Pitcher of the Week Archive
2.17 - Carson Baranik, UL Lafayette
2.24 - Lucas Humpal, Texas State
3.03 - Austin Robichaux, UL Lafayette
3.10 - Jake Thompson, WKU
3.17 - Tanner Hicks, Troy
3.17 - Justin Hageman, WKU
Recent Results
Tuesday, March 25
Alabama A&M at Georgia State W, 19-3
Texas State at No. 16 Texas L, 1-5
Northwestern State at No. 1/6 UL Lafayette W, 10-1
#No. 30 Alabama at Troy L, 5-10
Nicholls State at South Alabama W, 5-4
Baylor at UT Arlington W, 14-3
Memphis at Arkansas State W, 10-7
Wednesday, March 26
Alabama A&M at Georgia State W, 19-6
No. 10 Louisville at WKU L, 3-5
Southern at No. 1/6 UL Lafayette W, 17-3
Arkansas State at Missouri State L, 4-5
Friday, March 28
Troy at Georgia State * GSU, 8-6
Saturday, March 29
WKU at No. 1/6 UL Lafayette * WKU, 14-3
UALR at UL Monroe * ULM, 6-4
Texas State at Arkansas State * TXST, 4-3 (13)
UT Arlington at South Alabama * UTA, 8-3
Troy at Georgia State * GSU, 6-3
WKU at No. 1/6 UL Lafayette * UL-L, 10-9
Texas State at Arkansas State * A-State, 5-4
UALR at UL Monroe * ULM, 11-10 (11)
UT Arlington at South Alabama * UTA, 6-2
Sunday, March 30
Troy at Georgia State * Troy, 13-9
WKU at No. 1/6 UL Lafayette * UL-L, 7-4
UALR at UL Monroe * ULM, 16-5
Texas State at Arkansas State * A-State, 4-1
UT Arlington at South Alabama * UTA, 6-1
# - Cox Challenge (Pensacola, Fla.)
Upcoming Games
Tuesday, April 1
Austin Peay at WKU 4:00 PM
UL Monroe at Alabama 6:00 PM
South Alabama at Southeastern Louisiana 6:00 PM
Stephen F. Austin at UALR 6:00 PM
Tulane at UL Lafayette 6:00 PM
TCU at UT Arlington 6:30 PM
UTSA at Texas State 6:30 PM
Troy at UAB 6:30 PM
Arkansas State at Southeast Missouri St. TBA
Wednesday, April 2
Georgia Tech at Georgia State 5:00 PM
UALR at Central Arkansas 6:00 PM
WKU at Lipscomb 6:00 PM
Nicholls State at UL Monroe 6:00 PM
Southern Miss at South Alabama 6:30 PM
Friday, April 4
South Alabama at Texas State * 6:00 PM
Georgia State at UALR * 6:00 PM
Arkansas State at WKU * 6:00 PM
UL Lafayette at Troy * 6:00 PM
UL Monroe at UT Arlington * 6:30 PM
Saturday, April 5
UL Monroe at UT Arlington * 2:00 PM
South Alabama at Texas State * 3:00 PM
Arkansas State at WKU * 3:00 PM
Georgia State at UALR * 4:00 PM
UL Lafayette at Troy * 6:00 PM
Sunday, April 6
Georgia State at UALR * 11:30 AM
South Alabama at Texas State * 1:00:00 PM
UL Monroe at UT Arlington * 1:00 PM
Arkansas State at WKU * 1:00 PM
UL Lafayette at Troy * 1:00 PM
NOTE: All Game times are Central and Subject to Change
* - denotes SBC game
Team News and Notes
UALR Trojans
UALR was once again forced to cancel its trip to Missouri due to below freezing temperatures in Columbia, Mo. on Wednesday. The Trojans then took a trip down to ULM and were swept by the Warhawks. Ben Crumpton became the school’s all-time leader in career stolen bases with his steal of second in the fifth inning of Friday’s game at ULM. Crumpton stole two bases over the weekend to up his conference-leading total to 18 and his career total to 65, which is two more than Miguel Miranda’s 13-year old record of 63. The Trojans outhit the Warhawks in the three-game series 30-27 and were led by Bryson Thionnet who went 4-for-12 with a home run and a double in the three games. Crumpton had his first home run of the season and scored three times over the weekend. Sam Thoele allowed four hits and struck out four batters in his five innings on Saturday in his first start of the season, the sophomore hasn’t allowed an earned run yet this season. Jesse Harbin worked 3.1 scoreless innings to keep the Trojans within striking distance on Friday and lowered his season ERA back under 2.00 at 1.99 in 22.1 innings. UALR will host Stephen F. Austin on Tuesday before making the short trip the Central Arkansas on Wednesday. Sun Belt play will resume on Friday with a visit from Georgia State for a weekend series.
Arkansas State Red Wolves
The Arkansas State baseball team moved into sole possession of second place in the Sun Belt Conference standings with a pair of victories over Texas State over the weekend to win its three consecutive SBC series to start the year. A-State’s weekend were modified slightly when heavy rain moved through Northeast Arkansas on Friday night, forcing the Red Wolves and Bobcats to play a doubleheader on Saturday. Texas State won the first game in extra-innings, but A-State bounced back in game two behind and unlikely power boost from freshman infielder Eric Wilcoxson. The Walnut Ridge, Ark., broke a 3-3 tie with a 2-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning and Morgan Croft picked up his team leading fourth save to help A-State split the doubleheader. On Sunday, Bradley Wallace turned his best performance of the season by tossing seven shutout innings and scattering four hits and three strikeouts to help the Red Wolves take the series with a 4-1 victory. It was the first time in Wallace’s career that he had not allowed any runs in a start that had gone five or more innings. He held the Bobcats’ hitters to a .167 average and retired eight out of the first nine batters he faced. Matt Burgess blasted his second home run of the season on Sunday to add insurance for the Red Wolves while Cody Woodhouse and Morgan Croft combined to pitch the eighth and ninth innings to close out the game. A-State also helped its fielding percentage over the week by not committing an error in 40 straight innings, including four straight games without a mishap in the field. Austin Baker had a solid week at the plate which began with an inside the park home run in a 10-7 victory over Memphis. It was Arkansas State’s first inside the park home run since Todd Baumgartner had one during the 2011 campaign. Baker also added against the Bobcats on Sunday and is now a perfect 9-for-9 on the year. The Red Wolves have won 10 out of their last 14 games and have a .281 batting average over that span with 22 stolen bases while outscoring opponents 95-57. The team will play eight out of its next game on the road starting Tuesday night Southeast Missouri State followed by a three-game SBC weekend series at Western Kentucky. All games can be heard for free online at AStateRedWolves.com.
Georgia State Panthers
Georgia State won its first Sun Belt Conference series by taking two of three from Troy. Senior first baseman Nic Wilson continues to be one of the nation’s top hitters. He is second in the NCAA with 12 home runs, and he leads the Sun Belt in average (.407), homers, RBI (36), runs scored (35), slugging (.843) and on-base (.500). Over the last 15 games, Wilson is hitting .444 with 10 homers, 27 RBI and 23 runs scored. Senior right fielder Chase Raffield is also heating up. In five games last week, he hit .500 (7-for-14) with one homer and nine RBI to lead the Panthers to a 4-1 week. He also walked eight times on the week, did not strike out and scored seven runs. Over the weekend, Raffield went 6-for-9 (.667) with one homer, one double, seven RBI and four runs scored in three conference games against Troy, a key factor in the Panthers’ first Sun Belt Conference series victory. For the season, Raffield is hitting .347 with six homers and 32 RBI. Leadoff hitter Chad Prain is batting .320 and is second in the Sun Belt with 28 runs scored.
UL Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns
The Ragin’ Cajuns baseball team saw its 14-game win streak come to an end going 4-1 on the week with a pair of midweek victories and a series win against WKU to finish the week with a 26-3 record overall and 8-1 in league play. The series win was the eighth straight for the Cajuns dating back to the 2013 season. Louisiana cruised to a 10-1 win against Northwestern State and had a late surge against Southern to come out on top 17-3 during the week. The Cajuns win streak came to an end in the opening game of the WKU series falling 14-3. The squad bounced back though defeating the Hilltoppers 10-9 and 7-4 to win the series. The 7-4 win in the series finale marked the 700th victory for head coach Tony Robichaux at Louisiana, giving Robichaux 963 career wins. Junior Carson Baranik improved to 6-0 on the year winning the second game of the doubleheader, while freshman Connor Toups notched his first win throwing 4.1 strong innings in relief in the final game of the series. Junior Jace Conrad increased his hit streak to 13 games and has reached bad in 19 straight games, while Caleb Adams has a team-best streak of 23 games reaching base safely. Seth Harrison also carries a 15-game on base streak into the week. The Cajuns close out a nine-game homestand on Tuesday as they host Tulane before hitting the road to face Tulane in a three-game series.
UL Monroe Warhawks
ULM earned it third series win of the season and first series sweep over the weeekend as it took all three games from UALR... The sweep was the first for the Warhawks since taking all three games from UL-Lafayette to conclude the 2012 regular season (May 17-19)... ULM will return to action with a pair of midweek games as they travel to Alabama on Tuesday, followed by a home tilt against Nicholls State on Wednesday night... Alabama leads the all-time series over ULM by a 5-2 margin, but it will be the first meeting between the two teams since the 1996 campaign... ULM leads the all-time series against Nicholls State, 71-51, but the Colonels claimed a 3-0 win earlier this season in Thibodaux... In the series opener against UALR, the Warhawks held a 6-4 lead before the game was halted due to storms in the area (top of the eighth, one out)... The game was picked up Saturday afternoon after a delay of 19 hours, 49 minutes and it took just 24 minutes to record the final eight outs of the contest... The two teams turned right around and played again, this time a marathon game that lasted four hours and 21 minutes and ended on a walkoff single by ULM in the bottom of the 11th... ULM lead 6-2 after two inning before it turned into a back and forth affair... UALR owned a 10-9 lead and ULM was down to its last out, but Dalton Herrington came through with a RBI double to even the game at 10-10 and send it into extras... With one out and the bases loaded after two intentional walks, Herrington struck again with a walkoff single to give ULM the 11-10 win in 11 innings... The bats stayed hot for the Warhawks Sunday as they totaled 16 runs in an 11-run win over UALR to earn the sweep... ULM jumped out to an early 12-0 lead and after the Trojans plated five in the seventh, the Warhawks ended the game with a four-run frame highlighted by Justin Stawychny’s game-ending three-run homer... Prior to the sweep of UALR, the Warhawks posted a 1-2 weekend mark at Troy as they took game one before falling in the last two games... In the series opener, ULM rallied for a 7-4 win as the squad scored the final five runs in the contest... Keelin Rasch and Chet Simoneaux led the Warhawk offense as they each tallied two hits, one run and one RBI... Carey Taylor earned the win in relief as he tossed 3.1 innings of shutout baseball... Taylor allowed one hit and five walks with three strikeouts... Tyler Bray earned his second save of the season as he recorded the final four outs in the series opener.
South Alabama Jaguars
South Alabama (13-13, 3-5 SBC) went 1-3 last week with a midweek win over Nicholls State coming as the only Jaguar victory. USA was swept by Texas-Arlington in a three-game series at Stanky Field over the weekend. Friday’s game was postponed due to weather, and was rescheduled as part of a Saturday doubleheader. UTA defeated the Jags 8-3 in game one, and secured the series with a 6-2 win in game two. The Mavericks earned the series sweep with a 6-1 win in Sunday’s finale. USA batted .224 with six runs scored in three games against UTA. It marked the first time USA has been swept at Stanky Field in a SBC series since 2009 when Florida International took three straight from the Jags. South Alabama will play five games in the next six days, beginning Tuesday at Southeastern Louisiana. The Jags will host Southern Mississippi at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Stanky Field, before traveling to San Marcos, Texas, for a three-game weekend series at Texas State.
UT Arlington Mavericks
UT Arlington won four games over the week to earn its longest winning streak of the season. The Mavericks offense came alive beginning with Baylor as UTA cruised to a 14-3 win in the midweek matchup. The momentum continued into the weekend with the Mavs picking up their first SBC away win and first series sweep. UTA outscored the Jaguars 20-6 in the series. The Mavericks return home for a four-game home stand that begins against TCU. The stand continues into the weekend when UL Monroe comes to Clay Gould Ballpark beginning on Friday.
Texas State Bobcats
The Bobcats had a tough week, finishing it up at 1-3 with a loss at No. 12 Texas and two on the road to Arkansas State. The pitching staff, however, had a strong week, registering a 3.50 ERA with 26 strikeouts to just 14 walks. Taylor Black did not give up an earned run in 7.1 innings and Dylan Bein achieved the same feat in four innings at Texas. Cory Geisler only gave up one run combined in an inning at Texas and 2.1 at ASU. Senior closer Hunter Lemke picked up a win with four innings and 75 pitches Saturday in his record-breaking 84th appearance to become the pitcher with the most career appearances ever at Texas State. Matt Smith continues to lock down the leadoff spot in the lineup, finishing the week with a 3-for-4 performance in the series finale at ASU. He led the Bobcats in batting on the week at .313 with five hits. Ben McElroy was just as impressive in a combined designated hitter/outfielder role. He went 4-for-13 with a .308 batting average, scoring two runs with two RBI and two extra-base hits. The Bobcats will look to bounce back in a TV game at Bobcat Ballpark against UTSA at 6:35 p.m. Tuesday followed by a home series against South Alabama.
Troy Trojans
The Troy baseball team went 1-4 over the week falling to Alabama and twice to Georgia State before taking the series finale from the Panthers on Sunday … Shane McCain picked up his eighth consecutive quality start dating back to last season and his seventh straight in 2014 … David Hall continued to be productive going 5-for-15 over the weekend … Garrett Pitts turned in the single-game performance of the week with a 4-for-5 game on Sunday with two doubles and four RBIs … Clay Holcomb hit his first career home run to lead off Tuesday’s game against Alabama
WKU Hilltoppers
WKU averaged 13 hits and nine runs per game in its three-game series vs. No. 1 Louisiana-Lafayette. The Cajuns entered the series allowing just over two runs per game while holding opponents to six hits per game. WKU’s 14-3 win over the Cajuns marked its largest margin of victory this season. The Hilltoppers 14 runs scored were a season-high and the most Louisiana-Lafayette has surrendered this season. The Hilltoppers victory over the Cajuns was their highest-ranked opponent ever defeated and the second Top 5 team they’ve taken down this season. WKU has nine victories over Top 25 opponents since 2008, six of which have come against Top 10 teams. Head coach Matt Myers has been at the helm for six of the nine wins over Top 25 programs. WKU’s 14-3 win over the Cajuns ended the nation’s longest winning streak of 14 games. Senior outfielder Regan Flaherty pounded out seven hits, six RBI, two doubles, a homer and scored four runs against the No. 1 Cajuns. Flaherty is in the midst of a career long 17-game hitting streak. Flaherty’s 14-game streak entering last weekend ranked sixth among active streaks in the NCAA. Flaherty’s 17-game hitting streak ranks third in WKU history and is the longest since Matt Rice recorded a hit in 31-straight games during the 2009 season. Senior RHP Justin Hageman has registered four quality starts in his six starts on the mound this season. Hageman threw a complete game, nine-strikeout gem in a win over Texas State on March 21 and held the No. 1 Cajuns to three runs in his victory Saturday. WKU plays five games at Nick Denes Field this week against Austin Peay, Lipscomb and Arkansas State.