The Little Rock Trojans baseball team will be making its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2011 following a 2-1 victory over Eastern Illinois Saturday in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament championship game.
The Trojans entered the OVC tournament, held in Marion, Ill., as the eighth and final seed, having gone 8-16 in conference play. Little Rock struggled with injuries throughout the regular season, but went undefeated in the double-elimination tournament, beating Southern Indiana, Southeast Missouri, Eastern Illinois and Lindenwood before Saturday’s rematch with the Panthers.
The Trojans’ victory marks the first time an eight-seed has gone on to win the OVC tournament.
Right-handed pitcher Jack Cline threw a complete game, striking out three and scattering six hits. Cline was one of seven Trojans named to the OVC all-tournament team, joined by Alex Seguine, Cooper Chaplain, Zach Henry, Cade Martin, Brody Bunting and Jackson Wells. Martin was named tournament Most Valuable Player.
Little Rock will be a projected four-seed for the NCAA tournament, with brackets announced 11 a.m. Monday. The team will be hosting a watch party in the Legends Room of the Jack Stephens Center with doors open at 10:30.
The tournament appearance will be the first for the Trojans under coach Chris Curry. A graduate of Conway High School and former Chicago Cubs draft pick, Curry began his coaching career as an assistant at Hendrix College before making stops at Arkansas Tech, Arkansas, Meridian Community College (Miss.) and Northwestern (La.) State before taking over the Little Rock program in 2015.
“That’s the team we thought we had in the fall,” Curry said. “That’s the team we thought we had the first few weeks. What an unbelievable job. We were in a real dark place, shoot, seven days ago. We found out we were in, and it was like a million-pound weight off our shoulders. It was like the season was starting over.”
Image above taken from OVC Facebook post.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
