Baseball
Another late rally by UCA comes up short against Austin Peay
Casey Shipley’s big homer late not enough for Bears to overtake Governors, dropping ASUN series in Conway
CONWAY, Ark. — For the second day in a row, Central Arkansas rallied late, but dropped a 12-9 decision to the Austin Peay Governors on Saturday in ASUN action at Bear Stadium.
The Bears (6-14, 1-4) scored five runs in the bottom of the ninth to put a scare in the Governors, including a three-run home run by senior catcher Casey Shipley.
UCA had five hits in the inning and forced an APSU pitching change. Reliever Landon Slemp walked Bryce Ceremenelli and allowed a two-run base hit by Nathan Negre before finally ending it.
The Bears and Governors both finished with 14 hits, but two big innings by APSU were too much for the Bears to overcome.
The Governors scored four runs in the third and fourth innings to overcome a 4-3 UCA lead after two innings.
APSU scored three times in the first inning on five straight singles to open the game. UCA came back with two runs in the bottom of the first on RBI singles by Negre and Blaine French.
In the second, the Bears added two more with an RBI double by Zeb Allen and an RBI base hit by Cermenelli.
From there, the Governors scored the next nine runs before UCA’s ninth-inning rally.
Allen and French had three hits each to lead UCA’s offense, with Allen scoring three ties. Shipley, with his second home run of the week, and Negre knocked in three runs apiece.
Senior Jackson Schwank and freshman Luke Lorence combined to allow just two hits and one run over the final five innings out of the UCA bullpen.
Sunday’s series finale has been moved up to 11 a.m. to avoid possible afternoon weather issues.
Information from UCA Sports is included in this story.
