MONROE, La. – The Sycamore baseball team suffered an 8-5 loss at the hands of the Central Arkansas Bears on Sunday afternoon at the Warhawk Classic hosted by UL-Monroe. ISU is now 3-2 all-time against UCA. The two teams played a four game set in 2011 in Conway, Ark. UCA finished the weekend 3-0 and was crowned the Warhawk Classic Champion. The Sycamores are 2-1 in 2015.
UCA opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning. ISU's Greg Kuhlman gave up a single, hit a batter and walked the next to load the bases for UCA's Nate Ferrell. Ferrell tapped a soft grounder to second to bring home Wesley Hoover. Charles Deckard followed with a single to plate Jacob Richardson to put the Bears up 2-0 after one inning.
Hunter Owen cut the lead in half on the first pitch of the top of the second inning, depositing it over the left field wall. It was Owen's first career home run.
The Bears rallied in the bottom of the fourth inning, plating three runs on two hits and were aided by two Kuhlman walks.
Tony Rosselli responded in the top of the fifth, hitting his first home run of the season to left field, cutting the Bear lead to 5-2.
A single and a walk with the bases loaded scored two more for the Bears in the bottom of the fifth off of ISU's Trent Lunsford to extend the lead to 7-2.
The Sycamores got one back in the top of the sixth inning. Landon Curry hit a sharp line drive to right field and an error by the right fielder allowed Curry to reach second base. Derek Hannahs followed with a single up the middle to bring Curry home.
ISU got two more back in the top of the eighth inning. Andy DeJesus stepped up and delivered a pinch hit double down the left field line to bring the game within two, 7-5. UCA tacked on an insurance run in their half of the eighth and ISU went without a base runner in the ninth.
Offensively for the Sycamores, Owen and Rosselli hit solo home runs in the second and fifth innings, respectively. Curry finished two-for-five with two runs scored. DeJesus was one-for-one with two RBI and Hannahs picked up an RBI.
On the mound for ISU, Kuhlman started, throwing 4.0 innings, gave up four hits, five runs, four earned, walked four and struck out three. Lunsford lasted just 0.2 innings, giving up two hits, two runs, two earned, one walk, and no strike outs. Austin Conway retired the four batters he faced in the fifth and sixth innings. Nick Kolarik pitched the seventh and eighth innings allowing two hits and one run.
The Sycamores return to action on Friday, Feb. 20th when they take on in-state rival Ball State at the Elon University Tournament in Elon, N.C.
For the latest information on the Sycamore Men's Baseball team, make sure to visit GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook and Twitter.
