The UCA baseball team won two of three games against the University of Memphis last weekend in a combined 40 innings.
The weekend’s first game saw the Bears (8-5) beat the Tigers (11-3) 4-2 in Memphis in 17 innings Friday.
UCA jumped to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on a pop up to shallow right field.
Memphis tied the game in the bottom of the third inning on a single by sophomore outfielder Jake Little to bring freshman outfielder Darien Tubbs home.
Neither team scored for 13 innings until the Bears scored three runs in the top of the seventeenth inning.
Sophomore outfielder Tyler Langley was hit by a pitch as the first batter up for UCA in the top half of the inning.
He reached third on a sacrifice bunt by sophomore infielder Matt Anderson and a groundout by junior outfielder Wesley Hoover.
Junior catcher Charles Deckard walked to put a runner on first and third with two outs forthe Bears.
Senior infielder Justin Treece singled to left field to bring Langley home and Deckard advanced to second.
Junior infielder Brad Dillenberger reached on a throwing error by Tigers junior catcher Carter White to bring Deckard home from second and Treece advanced to third.
The next pitch resulted in a passed ball, which allowed Treece to score and Dillenberger advanced to third.
Senior infielder/outfielder Doug Votolato grounded out to end the inning.
Memphis scored one run in the bottom of the inning on a sacrifice fly to center field by junior designated hitter Bryce Beeler to score Little.
Senior pitcher Bryce Biggerstaff pitched a third consecutive quality start for UCA, but didn’t factor in the decision. He struck out three batters, gave up one run on four hits in eight
innings of work.
Junior pitcher Connor McClain (1-1) got the win for the Bears, striking out three batters, giving up three hits and one earned run in four innings of work.
The weekend’s second game saw the Tigers win 2-1 in 14 innings Saturday.
Memphis took the 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning on a passed ball to allow junior infielder Tucker Tubbs to score.
UCA tied the game in the top of the fifth inning on a triple to right center by Hoover to score Dillenberger.
Neither team surrendered the lead until the bottom of the 14th inning when the Tigers scored on a single to center field by Little to get the walk-off win.
The Bears took the series on a 8-5 win in nine innings Sunday, the weekends final game.
UCA scored two runs in the top of the first on a two-out hit by Hoover that scored two runs.
The Bears added to their lead in the top of the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Langley after Deckard singled to right to begin the inning. UCA added an additional four hits and two runs in the top of the third inning to bring the score to 5-0.
The Bears scored one run in the top of the fifth on a single through the right side of the infield by junior outfielder Nick Rougeau to bring the score to 6-0.
Memphis scored its first run in the game in the bottom of the fifth on a sacrifice fly by senior infielder Zach Willis to bring senior infielder Ethan Gross home.
The Tigers added to their run total in the bottom of the sixth inning on a single up the middle by White to bring senior infielder Drew Griffin home to bring the score to 6-2.
UCA scored its final runs in the top of the eighth inning on a two-out single up the middle by junior infielder Nate Ferrell to score two runs and increase the Bears’ lead to 8-2.
Memphis got its final two runs in the bottom of the eighth on four hits.
UCA junior pitcher Chris Caudle (3-1) got the win for the Bears. He pitched a complete game, giving up four runs on 13 hits, and struck out four batters.
Biggerstaff said Caudle’s complete game helped the pitching staff after the marathon games Friday and Saturday.
“It was great for Caudle to get that complete game win,” he said. “He’s a great pitcher. It’s always nice to save the bullpen when you can.”
The Bears will travel to Corpus Christi, Texas to play the Texas A&M – Corpus Christi Islanders for a three game series starting at 7:30 p.m. Friday
