By Ryne Rickman, UT Martin Sports Information Director
CONWAY, Ark. – The University of Tennessee at Martin baseball squad carried a lead into the bottom of the eighth inning today but the Central Arkansas Bears ended the game with six unanswered runs to win in walkoff fashion.
The Skyhawks led from the fourth through seventh innings thanks in large part to redshirt junior right-hander Eric Steensma, who mowed down Central Arkansas for a season-high four innings out of the bullpen. The Western Springs, Ill. native did not concede a run and scattered just three hits in his most successful outing of the 2023 campaign.
Jack Culumovic posted his third multi-hit game of the season this afternoon as he went 2-for-5 with an RBI. Slade Taylor drove in a pair of runs while Nate Self scored twice and had an RBI. Caleb Hobson also scored a run and collected an RBI out of the leadoff spot for UT Martin (4-11).
On the mound, Tristan Walton made the start and struck out four batters over three innings. The junior lefty recorded a pair of strikeouts in the first but Central Arkansas (6-7) was able to put two runs on the scoreboard.
The Skyhawks tied the game up in the top of the second as Blaze Bell drew a leadoff walk and advanced to third on a Will Smith double. Self lifted a sacrifice fly out to left field to score Bell before Taylor came up with a big two-out RBI single that plated Smith and evened the score at 2-2.
Walton stranded a runner on third base with back-to-back strikeouts to complete the second inning, allowing UT Martin to take a lead in its next at-bat.
Hobson was hit by a pitch to lead off the top of the third and soon stole second. He trotted home on an RBI double down the left field line off the bat of Culumovic, tilting the score to 3-2 in favor of the Skyhawks.
The Bears reclaimed the lead with two runs in the third but once again, UT Martin had an answer in its next turn to the plate.
Hunter McLean ripped a leadoff double into the gap in left center and later stole third base after a walk was issued to Self. Taylor brought in McLean on an error off a sacrifice bunt that made the score 4-4. Two batters later, Self scored on a groundout to give the Skyhawks a 5-4 advantage.
Steensma entered the contest in the fourth and immediately silenced the Central Arkansas bats. He stranded one runner in both the fourth and fifth innings before retiring the side in order on only 12 pitches in the sixth. He then gutted his way through the seventh, stranding the bases loaded with an inning-ending flyout to center.
The Skyhawks added an insurance run in the top of the eighth. McLean battled back from an 0-2 count to draw a walk before Self guided a single through the left side. Taylor laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move both runners up 90 feet before Hobson generated a sacrifice fly, handing UT Martin a 6-4 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth.
However, the Bears tied the game in the eighth and won the game in the ninth after a two-out grand slam after Choyce Diffey (0-1) was one out away from sending the contest into extra innings.
CONWAY, Ark. – Junior right fielder Zac Rice collected his second 3-hit game of the 2023 campaign today but the University of Tennessee at Martin baseball team fell 11-1 in Game 2 of its road series at Central Arkansas.
A Fort Mitchell, Ala. native, Rice reached base safely in all four of his plate appearances. He recorded two doubles, a single, a walk and swiped his fifth stolen base of the spring. Overall, it was his fifth multi-hit performance of the season.
Will Smith also had a two-hit day with a walk while scoring a run out of the cleanup spot in the Skyhawk lineup.
On the mound, Jordan Armstrong (1-2) received the starting nod and struck out six batters with just one walk over five innings. Trey Ricko pitched a career-high 2.1 innings out of the bullpen while Eli Martin struck out a pair of hitters in a scoreless relief appearance.
Armstrong kept the Bears off the scoreboard in the bottom of the first but Central Arkansas (7-7) scored three of its four runs in the second inning with two outs. The Bears were able to tack on two runs in the third before Armstrong compiled three strikeouts in the fourth inning alone in a scoreless frame.
Central Arkansas added four runs in the bottom of the fifth but Ricko kept the Bears off the scoreboard in the next two frames. The senior right-hander from Plainfield, Ill. did not allow a ball out of the infield in the sixth and silenced the Central Arkansas once again in the seventh.
After UT Martin placed a runner in scoring position in each of the second through seventh innings, the Skyhawks broke through for a run in the top of the eighth. Smith went the other way for an opposite-field single and advanced to second on a groundout. He then came home following a wild pitch and error for UT Martin’s first run of the contest.
The Bears scored one more run in the eighth but Martin got out of a jam by stranding the bases loaded after back-to-back called strikeouts.
The Skyhawks once again produced a runner in scoring position in the eighth after Rice crushed a double that one-hopped the wall out in left field. However, UT Martin’s deficit was too large to overcome.
CONWAY, Ark. – Seth Petry spun six innings of three-hit baseball, not allowing an earned run to lift the University of Tennessee at Martin to a 5-3 victory in the final game of the Central Arkansas weekend set.
The senior right-hander from Murfreesboro, Tenn. delivered his second start with zero earned runs allowed in 2023, lowering his season ERA to 3.57 in the process. Petry equaled a career-high with six strikeouts this afternoon en route to his first victory of the spring.
- Henry Hobson (21 of 27 pitches for strikes) was responsible for the seventh and eighth innings while Campbell Cleveland took over in the ninth and locked down his third save of the season.
Offensively, Hunter McLean continued to swing a hot bat with three hits today. Caleb Hobson went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI’s while Blaze Bell added two hits, a run scored and an RBI out of the cleanup spot. Will Smith also reached base safely three times (single, two walks) for the Skyhawks, who improve to 5-12 on the season.
UT Martin staked Petry to a 1-0 lead in the top of the second. Bell lined the first pitch he saw for a double down the left field line and advanced 90 feet on a McLean single before coming home on a sacrifice fly by Nate Self.
Petry did not allow a base hit until the seventh batter in the Bear lineup laid down a bunt single that brought in an unearned run.
The Skyhawks quickly reclaimed the lead in the top of the third with a pair of runs. Zac Rice roped a one-out double to left center and moved to third base on an Andrew Fernandez single. Rice scored on a wild pitch before an RBI groundout from Bell made the score 3-1 in favor of UT Martin.
Petry pitched out of a jam in the third as Central Arkansas loaded the bases with one away. He then buckled down for a three-pitch strikeout and an inning-ending groundout to keep the Skyhawks on top.
Petry zoned in from there, at one point retiring nine straight Bears. That included a pair of strikeouts in a scoreless fourth inning and another 3-up, 3-down frame in the fifth.
UT Martin extended its lead with two more runs in the sixth. Jack Culumovic reached on a catcher’s interference as the leadoff batter and advanced to second on a McLean single. After a perfect sacrifice bunt from Self put those two in scoring position, Caleb Hobson came through with a 2-run single through the left side to push the Skyhawk advantage out to 5-1.
Two more strikeouts were added to Petry’s line in the sixth, his final inning of work. J. Henry Hobson was summoned out of the bullpen and faced the minimum of three batters in the seventh, needing just five pitches in the process. J. Henry Hobson tacked on two more strikeouts in the eighth but Central Arkansas was able to scratch out one run to trim UT Martin’s lead to 5-2.
The Bears scored a harmless run with two outs in the ninth but Cleveland won an eight-pitch duel with the final batter of the game, securing the ninth strikeout by the Skyhawk pitching staff.
UT Martin returns home for a Tuesday, March 14 contest against Southern Illinois. First pitch time from Skyhawk Field is set for 6 p.m.
Graphic courtesy of UT Martin Sports Information