Carlos James has a saying every time his Arkansas-Pine Bluff baseball team gets off a bus to play an SEC school on its home field.
"It's 4.8 versus 11.7 and a million dollars," James said, referring to the number of scholarships UAPB is allotted because of budget restrictions compared to the deeper pockets of SEC schools.
Twice this season, UAPB has come out on top against those programs.
The Golden Lions (10-10) beat Missouri 8-3 on Tuesday in Columbia, Mo., a game in which the Tigers entered ranked 23rd nationally by Collegiate Baseball. The victory came three weeks after UAPB beat then-No. 7 Mississippi State 3-2 in Starkville, Miss.
The two victories are the school's first over major conference opponents since James took over as the Golden Lions' coach in 2011, and James said it is even more proof of the progress his program has made than the Southwestern Athletic Conference Western Division championship the team won last year.
"It just kind of validates everything that we believe in our program," James said.
It was seen March 18, too, when UAPB led Ole Miss 6-4 going into the ninth inning of a 7-6 loss in Oxford, Miss.
"I knew then, that game right there solidified where we want to be," James said. "My kids were upset. To go from barely being able to play with those schools and now your kids are walking out of Ole Miss and they're crying because they lost, we're going into games believing wholeheartedly that they're going to win."
Considering UAPB can't play in the SWAC Tournament or have a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament because of NCAA sanctions handed down last fall, James said games against major conference schools are the highlights of their season.
James said games against Mississippi State, Ole Miss and two against Missouri -- UAPB lost 9-3 Wednesday -- are being treated as "our regionals." UAPB begins a three-game series at New Orleans tonight and has one such game left, the April 29 season finale against Kansas.
"That's how we view them," James said. "We're 2-2 in the regionals, and we've got Kansas coming up. That's our tournament for this year."
UALR
Solid start
Coach Chris Curry didn't have a lot of time to learn about his team before fall practice started. Having been hired in July, Curry learned about what he inherited after fall workouts started.
One thing he quickly realized was that outfielder Ryan Scott didn't need to be tinkered with much.
"The first time I saw Ryan Scott swing in the cage, I knew that swing was an elite-level swing," Curry said. "We haven't touched his swing, and we are not going to. We got in his ear and pumped him up and said, 'Your swing is a good as we have on the team.' We told him that over and over and over, and he's taken that and run with it."
Scott will carry a 16-game hitting streak into UALR's three-game Sun Belt Conference series against Appalachian State that begins tonight at Gary Hogan Field in Little Rock. After hitting .191 last year, Scott is batting a team-best .397 through 20 games this season. He also leads the Trojans in runs (14), doubles (7), slugging percentage (.562) and on-base percentage (.458).
"He's a guy that doesn't give away any at bats," Curry said. "No matter the score or the inning or the outcome, you're going to get a good at-bat."
CENTRAL ARKANSAS
Order doesn't matter
Allen Gum has coached baseball long enough to know any little adjustment can work for or against any player.
For a sport that relies on routine as much as anything else, even a lineup switch can pull a player out of a slump or send him into one.
Not Matt Anderson, who only needed to stay healthy to start producing.
"Baseball is a funny sport," Gum said. "Some guys get comfortable in certain areas, but if they just stick to what what they do, then they'll be OK."
Anderson has so far this season, despite being moved up and down the lineup. Anderson has hit fourth, fifth and sixth in UCA's past three games.
After hitting two doubles and a triple in Wednesday's victory over UALR, Anderson is batting .463, which ranks third nationally and is 92 points better than the next-highest average in the Southland Conference.
It comes after Anderson hit .228 last year in a season cut short by a labrum tear.
"He's gotten a lot of big hits for us," Gum said. "We've had him in the sixth [hole], moved him up, didn't faze him. He still did a good job for us. He's getting off some good swings on some good pitches."
Sports on 03/27/2015