Arkansas Online

UALR to close out its time in Sun Belt

MITCHELL GLADSTONE

Throughout the year, the University of Arkansas-Little Rock has referred to its athletic seasons as one last trip around the Sun Belt Conference.

That journey will reach its final destination today when the Trojans’ baseball team plays in the Sun Belt Tournament with a play-in game against Appalachian State in Montgomery, Ala. After more than three decades in the league, UALR will depart for the Ohio Valley Conference.

Trojans Coach Chris Curry said he’ll miss the Sun Belt, but acknowledges the league — currently with three top-30 RPI teams and six in the top-100 plus incoming members Southern Miss (No. 13) and Old Dominion (No. 45) — is vastly different than the one he encountered upon taking over at UALR eight years ago.

“It’s a difficult league and we’ve never backed down from playing against good teams,” Curry said. “But at the same time, you want to be paired in a league and compete against teams that you like you have every opportunity to win the ballgame — just as they do.

“With the Sun Belt kind of going all chips in on football, not having it makes [a move to the Ohio Valley make] sense.”

As of Sunday, D1Baseball. com projects Sun Belt member Georgia Southern as an NCAA regional host and Texas State as a No. 2 seed. If the Trojans beat the Mountaineers this afternoon, they’ll face one of those two teams Wednesday.

Coastal Carolina is also a No. 2 seed in the D1Baseball projected bracket and Louisiana-Lafayette is currently listed as one of the first four teams out of the tournaments.

Against those four teams this season, UALR went 2-10 with one of the two victories coming Friday against the Ragin’ Cajuns as Hayden Arnold — today’s starter — pitched a complete-game, twohit shutout.

By comparison, the Ohio Valley has just two teams in the latest RPI top 100. One of them is Belmont, which will depart the conference at the end of the year.

Part of the reason for the difference in overall strength is the Sun Belt’s geography and commitment to challenging itself during nonconference play.

With fertile recruiting territory across the South, Sun Belt teams are able to find strong local talent, and schools throughout the league have fervent support — Coastal Carolina won the College World Series in 2016.

Curry also noted that the Sun Belt has encouraged its members to play high-major opposition. This season alone, UALR went to Arkansas, Texas State knocked off the likes of Texas and Arizona, and Georgia Southern has played Tennessee, Georgia, Florida State and Georgia Tech.

But there’s also the financial element of things. UALR and Texas-Arlington — the Sun Belt’s two non-football-playing programs — finished in the bottom five of the conference’s baseball standings.

The athletic departments that claim the Sun Belt’s top two baseball teams, Texas State and Georgia Southern, each generated at least $7.7 million in revenue through football alone, per the U.S. Department of Education’s Equity in Athletics Data Analysis.

That’s a playing field that should level itself once the Trojans move next spring. Curry said he believes his team will immediately be able to compete for conference titles and NCAA Tournament bids.

“The number one goal is getting to regionals, and that’s the next step this program needs to take,” Curry said. “Other than our first year here, we have not missed the conference tournament, which I think is a great accomplishment in the Sun Belt. … [But] from a coach’s standpoint, you don’t care what league you come out of, [making a regional] is what everybody’s working extremely hard to do.”

Doing that this year will be an uphill climb. If UALR gets past the Mountaineers, to earn an NCAA Tournament automatic bid, it would need to win at least three games while dealing with a league where it went 11-18 this season.

Although that likely isn’t in the cards this week at Riverwalk Stadium, the Trojans will get to display some of the young players that have emerged as likely keys for next year’s squad. They include a pair of freshmen in Benton native Aidan Garrett, who has cemented himself as the starting shortstop, and starting pitcher Michael Quevedo.

“We’ve won a game down here before,” Curry said. “What is realistic and what you can look back on and go, ‘Hey, that was a solid finish,’ is staying down here and getting two, three, even four wins.”

Sports

en-us

2022-05-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://edition.arkansasonline.com/article/282527252052269

WEHCO Media