Game Box Score
PINE BLUFF, Ark.- The University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff (14-15, 7-8 SWAC) baseball team set multiple team records and bolstered their way into second place in the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s western division with a 31-13 blowout victory over the Texas Southern Tigers. The win also sealed the three-game series in UAPB's favor as the Golden Lions prevailed two out of three contests.
The Golden Lions scored a minimum of two runs during every inning of the game highlighted by an eight and a five run scoring spree in the fourth and sixth innings. UAPB outfielder Jerome McCollum had a record setting game as he posted career highs in RBI’s (6) and runs scored (7). McCollum was not alone as fellow teammates Lloyd Burchett and B.J. McDonley also set careers highs in RBI’s with five and six respectively.
“I knew we had to get the bats rolling today. We had worked on some things with them last week, and I thought we didn’t show that yesterday,” UAPB coach Michael Bumpers said. “We also knew that they were a little down on their pitching today, and we took full advantage of that.”
Vince Newton was impressive on the mound in six and two-thirds innings worth of play. Newton tallied six strikeouts walking four TSU batters and allowing six earned runs. Newton’s outing also included five consecutive innings in which he shutdown the Tigers hitting rotation holding them scoreless from the second to the sixth inning.
Going into the contest versus Texas Southern the Golden Lions previous high in runs scored was 17 which also took place against TSU during UAPB’s conference opener. Arkansas-Pine Bluff nearly doubled that run total as they were able to capitalize off of 29 hits and two Tiger errors.
The long ball paved the way for what was an unbelievable display of offensive firepower from the Golden Lions. In all Arkansas-Pine Bluff totaled six homeruns as a total of four UAPB batters hit one apiece while outfielder Jerome McCollum tallied two.
“I didn’t have a great day yesterday, so I decided to get back to the cages and get back to the basics,” McCollum said. “As far as the whole team, we knew we had to stay within ourselves. We had to be patient and swing at good pitches.”
Catcher B.J. McDonley’s homer was unofficially the longest shot of the day as it cleared the 375 feet mark. Lloyd Burchett, Earnest Horton, and Trey Austin all connected with one homerun each. During the nine inning game Arkansas-Pine Bluff set season records in at bats (53), RBI’s (27), hits (29), and homeruns (6).
With the win Arkansas-Pine Bluff inches one win away from the .500 mark on the season and also currently sit in second place in the SWAC West. The Golden Lions will now get set to play Lemoyne Owen at Regional Park on Wednesday, April 8th at 4 p.m.