2021 LITTLE ROCK BASEBALL Assistant AD/Communications: Rand Champion Phone: (501) 351-3385 Email: [email protected] 2021 SCHEDULE GAMES 26-28 Overall: 12-13 | Sun Belt: 3-3 LITTLE ROCK TROJANS (12-13, 3-3 SUN BELT) FEBRUARY Head Coach: Chris Curry (Arkansas Tech, 2008) 21 at Oral Roberts W 4-3 Record at Little Rock: 141-172 (7th season) 22 at Oral Roberts L 3-7 Overall Record: 141-172 (7th season) 23 at #17 Oklahoma State Canceled 24 at #17 Oklahoma State L 2-7 26 Eastern Illinois L 6-12 SOUTH ALABAMA JAGUARS (16-10, 5-1 SUN BELT) 26 Eastern Illinois L (7) 1-17 Head Coach: Mark Calvi (Nova Southeastern, 1991) 27 Eastern Illinois W 6-5 Record at South Alabama: 293-221 (9th season) Overall Record: 293-221 (9th season) MARCH 3 Central Arkansas W 5-3 5 at North Alabama L 4-6 6 at North Alabama W 9-1 SERIES INFORMATION TALE OF THE TAPE 7 at North Alabama W 10-3 MEDIA 12 at Auburn L 0-7 LOCATION: Little Rock, Ark. | Gary Hogan Field 13 at Auburn L 0-6 GAME ONE: Friday, April 9 | 2 p.m. .276 AVERAGE .230 14 at Auburn W 12-6 GAME TWO: Saturday, April 10 | 6 p.m. 132 RUNS 134 19 Texas State * W (11) 2-1 GAME THREE: Sunday, April 11 | 1 p.m. 234 HITS 194 20 Texas State * W 12-0 WATCH: ESPN+ (Mike Coop, Patrick Walsh, Jonathan Farrar) 43 DOUBLES 32 21 Texas State * W 7-4 LIVE STATS: TrojanStats.com 4 TRIPLES 4 23 at Arkansas-Pine Bluff Canceled 26 at #22 Southern Illinois L 7-10 TWITTER UPDATES: @LittleRockBSB 20 HOME RUNS 25 27 at #22 Southern Illinois W 11-5 123 RBI 121 28 at #22 Southern Illinois W 11-5 345 TOTAL BASES 309 31 Arkansas-Pine Bluff W 7-2 .407 SLUGGING PCT. .367 88 WALKS 117 APRIL 1 at Arkansas State * L 2-10 25 STOLEN BASES 18 2 at Arkansas State * L 0-4 SERIES HISTORY .974 FIELDING PCT. .972 3 at Arkansas State * L 6-10 SERIES: South Alabama leads, 75-16 5.34 EARNED RUN AVERAGE 3.65 6 at #2 Arkansas L 2-7 STREAK: South Alabama won 3 214.0 INNINGS PITCHED 234.1 7 at #2 Arkansas L 3-10 FIRST MEETING: May 25, 1992 (USA 14, LR 7) 218 HITS ALLOWED 189 9 South Alabama * 2 p.m. LAST MEETING: May 5, 2019 (USA 9, LR 8) 151 RUNS ALLOWED 122 10 South Alabama * 6 p.m. LAST WIN IN LITTLE ROCK: May 6, 2018 (7-4) 127 EARNED RUNS ALLOWED 95 11 South Alabama * 1 p.m. LAST WIN IN MOBILE: May 6, 2017 (11-5) 116 WALKS 99 13 at Central Arkansas 6 p.m. CURRY vs. SOUTH ALABAMA: 4-12 (.250) 205 STRIKEOUTS 257 16 at ULM * 6 p.m. .265 OPPONENT AVG. .220 17 at ULM * 2 p.m. 18 at ULM * 1 p.m. 20 at Ole Miss 6:30 p.m. 23 Louisiana * 6 p.m. PROJECTED STARTERS 24 Louisiana * 6 p.m. Pos. # Player Avg. AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SLG BB SB-ATT 25 Louisiana * 1 p.m. C 28 John Michael Russ .353 85 10 30 4 0 0 12 .400 12 1-2 30 at UT Arlington * 6:30 p.m. 1B 33 Kobe Barnum .243 74 7 18 3 0 2 12 .365 5 0-0 MAY 2B 21 Jorden Hussein .390 82 18 32 5 1 0 10 .476 9 3-5 1 at UT Arlington * 6:30 p.m. SS 2 Eldrige Figueroa .220 91 15 20 6 1 0 8 .308 6 1-4 2 at UT Arlington * 1 p.m. 3B 6 Nathan Lyons .283 92 19 26 4 0 4 13 .457 13 4-7 4 at Ole Miss 6:30 p.m. LF 5 Miguel Soto .227 88 11 20 3 0 1 4 .295 6 4-4 7 at Sam Houston State 6:30 p.m. CF 13 Tyler Williams .333 99 18 33 8 2 5 27 .606 5 5-7 8 at Sam Houston State 3 p.m. RF 20 Kenny Rodriguez .319 47 10 15 1 0 3 15 .532 13 3-6 9 at Sam Houston State 1 p.m. DH 7 Noah Dickerson .236 89 15 21 7 0 2 15 .382 14 0-0 14 Appalachian State * 6 p.m. 15 Appalachian State * 6 p.m. 16 Appalachian State * 1 p.m. 20 at Georgia State * 5 p.m. PITCHING ROTATION 21 at Georgia State * 3 p.m. 22 at Georgia State * 11 a.m. LITTLE ROCK SOUTH ALABAMA 25-30 Sun Belt Conference Tournament ^ FRI 30 - Hayden Arnold (Sr., RHP) 3-3 | 37.2 IP | 4.30 ERA vs. 21 - Jeremy Lee (Fr., RHP) 2-1 | 36.0 IP | 2.75 ERA SAT 17 - Aaron Funk (Sr., RHP) 0-3 | 30.2 IP | 5.58 ERA vs. 44 - Matt Boswel (Sr., RHP) 2-0 | 30.2 IP | 4.11 ERA * Sun Belt Conference game | ^ Montgomery, Ala. SUN TBA vs. 11 - JoJo Booker (Sr., RHP) 3-0 | 40.1 IP | 3.12 ERA LRTrojans.com NEWS AND NOTES SCOUTING THE JAGUARS WILLIAMS DOING IT ALL South Alabama enters the weekend 16-10 overall and 5-1 in Sophomore Tyler Williams continues to show why he is the Sun Sun Belt Conference play, sitting atop the East Division stand- Belt’s top prospect for 2022, batting .333 on the year while lead- SERIES HISTORY ings following a sweep of Troy last weekend in Mobile. The ing the team in slugging percentage (.606), at bats (99), hits Series Record South Alabama leads, 75-16 Jaguars are batting .230 as a team with a .367 slugging per- (33), doubles (8), triples (2), home runs (5), RBI (27), total bases Streak South Alabama won 3 centage as just two players are hitting over .300 on the year, (60) and stolen bases (5). Williams had his 24-game streak of In Little Rock 8-32 led by preseason Player of the Year Ethan Wilson’s .318 average reaching base safely come to an end Wednesday in Fayetteville In Mobile 7-40 with 16 RBI. But South Alabama has been strong on the mound, but he leads the team with seven multi-RBI games. Neutral 1-3 boasting a Sun-Belt low 3.65 ERA while limiting the opposition to just a .220 batting average. The pitching staff has combined HAPPY HOMECOMING for 257 strikeouts while allowing just 99 walks. Bentonville native Nathan Lyons had a strong showing in his CURRY vs. JAGUARS return to northwest Arkansas, going 3-for-6 with a home run LAST TIME OUT and six total bases for a 1.000 slugging percentage in the pair Date Location Result Score Little Rock dropped a two-game midweek series in Fayetteville of games against the second-ranked Razorbacks. Lyons also 3/6/15 * Mobile, Ala. W 4-3 3/7/15 * Mobile, Ala. L 0-1 to second-ranked Arkansas, falling 7-2 in game one and 10-3 in drew a par of walks and made a number of key defensive plays 3/8/15 * Mobile, Ala. L (11) 2-3 game two. The Razorbacks jumped in front early in both games at third, helping limit Arkansas to a .258 average in the series. 3/12/16 * Mobile, Ala. L 3-13 and the Trojans responded in the fifth each time before late in- 3/13/16 * Mobile, Ala. L 5-7 ning runs put the games out of reach. Nathan Lyons had the hot RUSS ON POSEY WATCH LIST 3/13/16 * Mobile, Ala. L 6-10 bat in his northwest Arkansas homecoming, batting .500 with a Senior catcher John Michael Russ was named to the 2021 Bust- 5/26/16 ^ San Marcos, Texas L 4-6 1.000 slugging percentage in the two games at Baum-Walker. er Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year watch list last 5/5/17 * Mobile, Ala. L 3-8 week, marking the second-straight year the Trojans have had 5/6/17 * Mobile, Ala. W 11-5 TYING HOGAN a catcher named to the list (Kale Emshoff - 2020). Little Rock’s 5/7/17 * Mobile, Ala. L 3-5 With the weekend sweep of Texas State March 19-21, head team captain in 2021, Russ is batting .353 in the cleanup spot 5/4/18 * Little Rock W 13-9 coach Chris Curry sits at 76 Sun Belt Conference wins, moving with 12 RBI and 12 walks, ranking third on the team with 30 5/5/18 * Little Rock L 7-10 him into a tie with Hall of Fame coach Gary Hogan for the most hits. He has also been solid behind the plate with a 1.000 field- 5/6/18 * Little Rock W 7-4 conference victories in program history. Curry is 76-76 all-time ing percentage and just three passed balls in 23 starts. 5/3/19 * Mobile, Ala. L 1-8 in league play as his .500 conference winning percentage is the 5/4/19 * Mobile, Ala. L 2-7 5/5/19 * Mobile, Ala. L 8-9 highest in program history as well. BATTLE OF THE BEST Saturday’s game is slated to have a unique showdown as the * Sun Belt Conference game | ^ Sun Belt Tournament game PLAYING WITH THE LEAD Sun Belt’s preseason Pitcher of the Year (Little Rock’s Aaron Little Rock has taken advantage of being in front as the Trojans Funk) will go head-to-head with the preseason Player of the are 12-2 this season in games in which they have held a lead at Year (South Alabama’s Ethan Wilson).