Mark West: Red Wolves Baseball Hosts ULM, UCA

The Red Wolves baseball team pulled of a historical series win in Mobile, Ala., against the solid pitching staff in South Alabama and got a midweek victory on the road as Tyler Zuber shut down the Memphis Tigers – again – having pitched 10 scoreless innings against A-State’s rival from across the river.

A-State sits at 21-16 with a 10-5 Sun Belt record that has them all by themselves in second place, four games behind No. 2 Louisiana Lafayette and two games ahead of Texas State and UT Arlington, both of whom A-State won 2-of-3 against.

The Red Wolves baseball team ends the two week road trip with an overall 5-4 road trip (6-4 if you count the UCA home win) and a 3-3 Sun Belt road record over stand. Arkansas State returns to the Tom confident with an RPI of 50 and hosts the suddenly surging Louisiana Monroe Warhawks (16-23, 7-8 Sun Belt, 136 RPI).

ULM made a mid-season coaching change and immediately turned around from a 1-5 conference start, being outscored 66-17 to winning six of nine conference games outscoring opponents 78-70.

Friday night’s pitching matchup features a battle between sophomores as A-State’s David Owen (4-2, 4.47 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, .262 OBA) faces ULM’s Alex Hermeling (1-4, 5.27 ERA, 1.49 WHIP, .267 OBA). Owen has been the Red Wolves Friday night guy since Sun Belt play started, Hermeling is making his second Friday night start for ULM.

Saturday A-State freshman Bryan Ayers (1-1, 3.18 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, .208 OBA) makes his first weekend start against ULM’s senior Chad Miller (2-1, 4.82 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, .263 OBA). Ayers has been great as a starter with a 1.80 ERA in two midweek starts for the Red Wolves having recently earned his first collegiate win holding UCA to six scoreless innings while Miller is a veteran arm for the Warhawks.

On Sunday A-State’s Bradley Wallace (3-3, 4.06 ERA, 1.49 WHIP, .287 OBA) is looking to make his third consecutive quality start as he faces ULM’s Chris Hunt (2-2, 4.91 ERA, 1.93 WHIP, .289 OBA). Wallace has a 0.90 ERA the last three starts and hopes to keep things rolling on Sunday.

ULM is an aggressive offense that relies on power and extra base hits while A-State is more oriented to getting on base and moving runners around to score so the contrast should make for an interesting series.

Matt Burgess looks to add to his team RBI lead this weekend while Stuart Levy will try to improve on his team leading .315 average. Austin Baker continues to get on base at an impressive pace with a .412 on base percentage with 20 walks and six home runs.

Morgan Croft continues to be solid as A-State’s closer with seven saves with set up guys like Cody Woodhouse (2.27 ERA), Tyler Zuber (1.82 ERA) and Colton Kibler (2.70 ERA) getting games from the starters to the closer.

A-State will then wrap up its’ season series with a game at UCA this week that could be just as interesting as the 3-0 games Ayers pitched to earn his way into a weekend start.

* * *

You can read more of Mark West at College Baseball Central where he covers Arkansas State, the Sun Belt Conference and the Big 12 Conference at http://collegebaseballcentral.com/author/markwest/