Sun Belt Conference Weekly News and Notes (Full PDF)
2016 Sun Belt Conference Media Guide
2016 Sun Belt Conference Composite Schedule
2016 Sun Belt Conference Standings
2016 Sun Belt Conference Statistics
Cajuns, Trojans and Jaguars Sweep their Weekend; Clement, Cohen Named Student-Athletes of the Week
Three teams came away with sweeps over the weekend as No. 9 UL Lafayette swept Sam Houston State, Troy swept Northern Kentucky in a four-game series and South Alabama swept Evansville. Additionally, Arkasnas State opened the season with a three-game road series win, the first in school history, as they defeated UAB. Little Rock also posted a 2-1 record on the weekend defeating Indiana State and Kansas. UT Arlington knocked off top ten Oklahoma State and Stephen F. Austin in their home tournament while Texas State nearly pulled off a four-game sweep of Washington State before dropping their Monday contest in extra innings.
UL Lafayette's Kyle Clement was this week's recipient of the Community Coffee Student-Athlete of the Week award. Clement picked up where he left off last season hitting .615 (8-for-13) over the weekend with two doubles and four RBI. He tied a school record with five hits in the series finale helping guide the Cajuns to a sweep of Sam Houston State. He had a .643 on base percentage and slugged .769 in the series.
Georgia Southern's freshman pitcher, Chase Cohen, was named this week's Community Coffee Pitcher of the Week. Cohen had an outstanding debut outing for the Eagles in Saturday’s second game of the season against the Georgia Bulldogs. The freshman threw 5.0 innings against the Bulldogs and allowed just one hit while not allowing a run and leaving the game with a 2-0 lead. He fanned seven batters on an efficient pitch count of 69 pitches and walked just one while carrying his no-hit bid through four complete innings.
In South Alabama's Friday night win over Evansville, senior Kevin Hill picked up the win, giving him 11 consecutive wins dating back to last season. The right-hander pitched six innings allowed one hit and three runs while striking out ten.
All told, Sun Belt teams went a combined 22-14 in the opening weekend for a .611 winning percentage.
In the Cajuns series win over SHSU, three sophomore pitchers (Gunner Leger, Wyatt Marks and Dylan Moore) limited the Bearkats to just one run in 15 innings while striking out 14.
For two other teams, youth is being served as well as Appalachian State, which played 27 student-athletes in their opening weekend, 12 were freshman and on Sunday six of them were true freshman. Texas State also had young players contributing early as three freshmen have combined for nine hits with the top two freshmen, Nick Perez and Jonathan Ortega, tallying four hits apiece. In addition to the freshmen, sophomores have contributed too. In all, over the first three games, 19 of the team’s 29 hits have come from eight sophomores or freshmen.
The two wins over the weekend by UT Arlington pushed head coach Darin Thomas' career-win total (all at UTA) to 238, just 12 shy of becoming the second coach in team history to reach 250 wins.
Recent Results
February 19 (Friday)
(1) UT Arlington 3, No. 11 Oklahoma St. 2
(1) UT Arlington 1, Stephen F. Austin 12
(2) No. 23 Coastal Caro. 17, Appalachian State 2
Little Rock 2, Indiana St. 7
(3) Georgia State 3, Western Mich. 2
UAB 5, Arkansas State 14
Georgia 4, Georgia Southern 1
UL Lafayette 2, Sam Houston St. 1
Southeastern Louisiana 2, UL Monroe 0
Texas State 6, Washington St. 2
Troy 10, Northern Kentucky 3
South Alabama 5, Evansville 4
February 20 (Saturday)
Georgia 3, Georgia Southern 5 (10)
UAB 5, Arkansas State 0
Troy 5, Northern Kentucky 0
UAB 2, Arkansas State 5
(3) Georgia State 6, VCU 8
UL Lafayette 6, Sam Houston St. 2
Southeastern Louisiana 8, UL Monroe 2
South Alabama 11, Evansville 0
(1) UT Arlington 3, No. 11 Oklahoma St. 5
(2) No. 8 Virginia 8, Appalachian State 0
Little Rock 4, Kansas 2
Texas State 10, Washington St. 1
Troy 6, Northern Kentucky 1
February 21 (Sunday)
Georgia 5, Georgia Southern 1
(3) Georgia State 3, Purdue 5
South Alabama 18, Evansville 5
Little Rock 6, Indiana St. 5
UL Lafayette 13, Sam Houston St. 3
Southeastern Louisiana 5, UL Monroe 6 (10)
Texas State 7, Washington St. 6
Troy 4, Northern Kentucky 2
(1) UT Arlington 13, Stephen F. Austin 7
(2) Old Dominion 12, Appalachian State 3
February 22 (Monday)
Texas State 8, Washington St. 9 (10)
(1) - Clay Gould Classic (Arlington, Texas)
(2) - Caravelle Resort Tournament (Conway, S.C.)
(3) - Atlanta Challenge (Atlanta, Ga.)
(4) - 2016 Houston College Classic (Houston, Texas)
(5) - Bulldog Invitational (Athens, Ga.)
Upcoming Games
February 23 (Tuesday)
Appalachian State at No. 20 South Carolina - 3:00 PM
Arkansas State at No. 28 Ole Miss - 3:00 PM
UL Monroe at Southern Miss - 6:00 PM
Alabama State at South Alabama - 6:30 PM
Georgia State at USC Upstate - POSTPONED
Little Rock at Louisiana Tech - POSTPONED
February 24 (Wednesday)
Georgia Tech at Georgia Southern - 5:00 PM
UL Lafayette at Louisiana Tech - 6:00 PM
Texas State at Rice - 6:00 PM
UAB at Troy - 6:00 PM
UT Arlington at Baylor - 6:30 PM
February 26 (Friday)
Arkansas State vs. Morehead State & - 2:00 PM
Texas State at Michigan State - 2:00 PM
IPFW at Little Rock - 3:00 PM
Coppin State at Georgia State - 3:00 PM
UL Monroe at Western Carolina - 3:00 PM
(4) No. 9 UL Lafayette vs. No. 13 TCU - 3:30 PM
(5) South Alabama at Georgia - 4:00 PM
Radford at Georgia Southern - 6:00 PM
UT Arlington at Louisiana Tech - 6:00 PM
Troy at Southeastern Louisiana - 6:00 PM
Quinnipiac at Appalachian State - TBA
February 27 (Saturday)
(5) South Alabama vs. WKU - 11:00 AM
Quinnipiac at Appalachian State - 11:00 AM
Coppin State at Georgia State - 12:00 PM
IPFW at Little Rock - 12:00 PM
Arkansas State vs. Saint Louis & - 12:00 PM
(4) No. 9 UL Lafayette vs. Texas Tech - 12:00 PM
UL Monroe at Western Carolina - 1:00 PM
Radford at Georgia Southern - 2:00 PM
UT Arlington at Louisiana Tech - 2:00 PM
Texas State at UCF - 2:00 PM
Troy at Southeastern Louisiana - 2:00 PM
Quinnipiac at Appalachian State - 2:00 PM
Arkansas State vs. Saint Louis & - 3:30 PM
Coppin State at Georgia State - 3:30 PM
Radford at Georgia Southern - 6:00 PM
IPFW at Little Rock - TBD
February 28 (Sunday)
Arkansas State vs. Nebraska-Omaha & - 10:00 AM
(5) South Alabama vs. Cincinnati - 11:00 AM
Radford at Georgia Southern - 12:00 PM
Coppin State at Georgia State - 12:00 PM
UL Monroe at Western Carolina - 12:00 PM
IPFW at Little Rock - 1:00 PM
UT Arlington at Louisiana Tech - 1:00 PM
Troy at Southeastern Louisiana - 1:00 PM
Texas State at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi - 3:00 PM
(4) No. 9 UL Lafayette at Rice - 6:00 PM
Quinnipiac at Appalachian State - 3:00 PM
Week 1 Community Coffee Student-Athlete of the Week
Kyle Clement
UL Lafayette | Senior | OF
Senior outfielder Kyle Clement picked up where he left off last season hitting .615 (8-for-13) over the weekend with two doubles and four RBI. He tied a school record with five hits in the series finale helping guide the Cajuns to a sweep of Sam Houston State. He had a .643 on base percentage and slugged .769 in the series.
Week 1 Community Coffee Pitcher of the Week
Chase Cohen
Georgia Southern | Freshman | RHP
Chase Cohen had an outstanding debut outing for the Eagles in Saturday’s second game of the season against the Georgia Bulldogs. The freshman threw 5.0 innings against the Bulldogs and allowed just one hit while not allowing a run and leaving the game with a 2-0 lead. He fanned seven batters on an efficient pitch count of 69 pitches and walked just one while carrying his no-hit bid through four complete innings. The bullpen, however, let Cohen down as Georgia tied the game in the seventh. The Eagles, however, picked up the win in the 10th inning.
Student-Athlete of the Week Archive
2.23 - Kyle Clement, UL Lafayette
Pitcher of the Week Archive
2.23 - Chase Cohen, Georgia Southern
AROUND THE SUN BELT CONFERENCE
- Community Coffee is the official coffee of the Sun Belt Conference. They are sponsoring this season’s baseball student-athlete and pitcher of the week awards as well as the Most Outstanding Player award at the tournament.
- Sun Belt teams went a combined 22-14 in the opening weekend with three teams pulling off weekend sweeps including No. 9 UL Lafayette, Troy and South Alabama.
- Speaking of Troy, the Trojans went 4-0 against Northern Kentucky as they begin the 2016 season with a new skipper at the helm in Mark Smartt. Smartt, a longtime Troy assistant coach, took over this season for Bobby Pierce who retired at the end of the 2015 season.
The UL Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns moved up four spots in the NCBWA Poll this week to No. 9. The Cajuns were ranked No. 13 in the preseason poll but swept Sam Houston State over the weekend. Cajun sophomore pitching limited the Bearkats to one run in 15 innings with 14 strikeouts.
- Of the 27 student-athletes that saw action for the Appalachian State Mountaineers during the opening weekend, 12 were freshman. Appalachian had six true freshmen in Sunday’s starting lineup.
- Dating back to last season, UT Arlington starting pitcher Joel Kuhnel has now gone at least 6.0 innings in each of his last six starts.
- With two wins on the weekend, UTA head coach Darin Thomas now has 238 career victories (all at UTA) and is just 12 wins shy of becoming only the second coach in program history with 250 career wins.
- Georgia State freshman Israel Zackery’s first collegiate at-bat resulted in a walk-off single in the 12th inning to give Georgia State a 3-2 victory over Western Michigan on Opening Day.
- Youth is being served at Texas State. Three freshmen have combined for nine hits with the top two freshmen, Nick Perez and Jonathan Ortega, tallying four hits apiece. In addition to the freshmen, sophomores have contributed too. In all, over the first three games, 19 of the team’s 29 hits have come from eight sophomores or freshmen.
- A-State’s series win over UAB is the first time in school history the Red Wolves have won a three-game road series to open a season. The 14-5 victory over UAB was the first true (non-neutral site) road victory to open a season for A-State since the 1997 season (8-6 win at ULM).