UALR Baseball Falls To Louisiana Tech, 6-3

Courtesy University of Arkansas at Little Rock Athletics Department

LITTLE ROCK – The UALR baseball team (2-2) dropped its first midweek game of the 2013 season, falling to Louisiana Tech (1-3) 6-3 on Tuesday afternoon from Gary Hogan Field. Louisiana Tech would do all its damage in the fifth inning, scoring six runs on three hits and bringing 12 batters to the plate in the frame. Offensively, UALR scored a run in the first two innings of play, but were limited to one run the rest of the game as its comeback efforts fell short.

Junior Austin Pfeiffer led the Trojans with two hits, one run scored, and one RBI. Senior Myles Parma contributed two hits of his own, while senior John Clark added one run and one RBI.

A Clark sacrifice fly in the first inning got UALR on the board first, scoring junior Ben Crumpton. Crumpton had led off the bottom half of the first inning with a single through the left side of the infield. In the following inning, sophomore Sam Vogel doubled off the right centerfield fence that brought home Pfeiffer, giving UALR an early 2-0 advantage.

UALR freshman Chad Bradford got the starting nod on the mound for the Trojans and held the visiting Bulldogs scoreless through the first four innings of play. In that time, the freshman recorded four strikeouts and appeared to be on cruise control heading into the fifth inning. The wheels fell off for Bradford, however, with Louisiana Tech finally getting to UALR’s right hander.

With the bases loaded and nobody out, Louisiana Tech’s Ryan Gebhardt grounded into a fielder’s choice, bringing in the Bulldogs first run of the afternoon. Junior Tyler Qualls followed with a single up the middle that brought home another run. After a two walks and a wild pitch that scored an additional run, Bradford left the game with the bases loaded and one out in the fifth. Bradford lasted 4.1 innings and was credited with six earned runs and four walks in his first outing as a Trojan.

UALR’s Jesse Harbin came on in relief for Bradford, yielding a sacrifice fly and walking two batters. Sophomore Cameron Allen replaced Harbin to stop the bleeding in the fifth, but not after allowing an RBI single to Louisiana Tech’s Ryan Jones that brought in the Bulldogs’ sixth run of the inning.

The Trojans would get a run back in the top of the sixth inning on an RBI single to right field by Pfeiffer that scored Clark, but the scoring would end there for UALR.

Eight Trojan pitchers were called to the mound on Tuesday, highlighted by sophomore Stephen Chandler who worked the final 1.2 innings, striking out one batter and holding Louisiana Tech scoreless.

UALR returns to action on Friday, Feb. 22 for the first of a four-game weekend series against the visiting SIU Edwa