A-STATE/SOUTH ALABAMA SERIES HISTORY
• A-State is 26-63 all-time against South Alabama in a series that began during the 1993 season in A-State's second season in the Sun Belt Conference. All 89 meetings have occurred with both teams as members of the SBC. A-State went 2-4 in both 1993 and 1994 against the Jaguars. South Alabama won 11-10 in 10 innings in Mobile, Ala., in the first game before a 4-1 victory in the second game. A-State claimed its first win with a 10-9 win in 10 innings. Four of the first 12 games between the two schools went into extra innings.
• South Alabama won more games in the season series every year until 2003 when the Red Wolves went 2-2 against the Jaguars. A-State took two of three from the 25th-ranked Jaguars in Jonesboro that season before falling to USA in the SBC Tournament. Two years later, A-State went 2-1 against South Alabama after claiming two-of-three in Jonesboro.
• Head coach Tommy Raffo is 11-14 against the Jaguars as A-State's head coach. The team won two out of three in his first series against them in 2009 before he oversaw the team's first-ever sweep of USA in 2012. The team won the season series 3-1 in 2012 with two-of-three in the regular season in Mobile, Ala., including a 7-6 win in 14 innings. That was also the first time A-State had won a three-game series in Mobile. However, USA got the Red Wolves back last season with a 4-1 mark against the team with two wins coming in the conference tournament.
• South Alabama is currently 22-8 after splitting a pair of midweek games. The Jaguars lost to Alabama State 12-7 and defeated New Orleans 12-3. USA is 12-0 in league play with sweeps over Little Rock, UT Arlington, Texas State, and ULM.

NOTES FROM SOUTHEAST MISSOURI GAME
• The Arkansas State baseball team dropped a 4-2 decision to Southeast Missouri Tuesday night and is now 35-32 against the Redhawks all-time.
• Redshirt Sophomore Bryan Ayers registered his fourth quality start of the season, which leads the team, after tossing six innings and only allowing one run (earned) on six hits with two walks and a career-high tying eight punch outs.
• Zachary Patterson entered the game and struck out all three batters he faced in the seventh inning. The three batters he struck out were part of six straight SEMO hitters the Red Wolves struck out including the last three hitters Ayers faced after giving up a leadoff triple in the sixth inning.
• Tanner Ring gave up his first runs of the season in the game on the mound when pinch-hitter Chris Osborne hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning.
• The A-State offense got on the board in the game with back-to-back doubles by Matt Burgess and Joe Schrimpf. The double by Burgess tied him with Tanner Ring, who also doubled in the game, for the team lead with seven two-baggers. Schrimpf's RBI put him in the team lead temporarily before Burgess drove home Jake Bakamus for a 2-1 lead later in the game. Both players are tops on the team with 22 runs driven in.

NOTES FROM LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE SERIES
• Arkansas State took one of three from No. 27 Louisiana-Lafayette last Friday-Sunday with the win being a 7-6 decision Friday night. It was the team's first win over a ranked team since a 4-1 win over No. 7 Louisville Feb. 21.
• The 1-2 record dropped A-State to 39-77 all-time against Louisiana-Lafayette and Coach Raffo is now 12-14 against the Cajuns.
• Matt Burgess homered in Friday's contest to give him three straight games with a home run, while Joe Schrimpf homered Saturday to give the team a seven-game streak with at least one round-tripper. The streak was broken Sunday, but that was the team's longest such streak since the 2006 season when A-State homered in seven straight games from Feb. 17 to Feb. 28.
• Tyler Zuber improved to 3-2 on the year with a win in Friday's game. The White Hall, Ark., native tossed 5.1 innings and allowed seven hits, five runs (four earned), with five walks and four strikeouts. Tanner Ring picked up his third save of the season in the win. He pitched the final two innings and allowed no runs on one hit with one walk and one strikeout.
• Adam Grantham had the team's eighth quality start of the year and his second of the season Saturday night against the Ragin' Cajuns. He allowed two runs (earned) on four hits with four walks and four strikeouts.

RITTER, RITTER, CHICKEN DINNER
• Sophomore pitcher Bo Ritter made his first start of the season against Memphis March 29 and tossed five innings of one-run ball to pick up his first win of the season and second of his career.He allowed one run on two hits with one walk and no strikeouts. One of the hits was a solo home run that barely cleared the left-field fence at FedExPark.
• The win for Ritter was the first since he won his only other decision against Central Arkansas on May 5 of last season. He tossed three scoreless innings in relief and allowed only one hit with no runs allowed and one strikeout with no walks against the Bears as the Red Wolves won 8-6 in 13 innings.

BURGESS LEAVES THE YARD
• A-State senior Matt Burgess has homered in three straight games for the first time in his career. He hit a two-run homer against Georgia Southern in the bottom of the first inning March 26 before absolutely destroying a ball against Memphis March 29 for another two-run home run in the top of the ninth. He added to the streak with a three-run bomb from the right-side of the plate (first of the season batting RH) against ULL before finally not homering Saturday or Sunday against the Ragin' Cajuns.
• Burgess now has 10 home runs in his career, which is the second most among active team members (Austin Baker leads with 16). The Greenbrier, Ark., native also has 117 RBIs, which is most among active team members.
• A-State has now hit 13 home runs on the season with Tanner Ring holding the team lead (4), while Joe Schrimpf and Burgess are tied for second with three apiece.

LET'S TURN TWO
• A-State is now 18th in the nation in double plays after turning three against the Ragin' Cajuns April 1-3. The team had a 6-4-3 effort Friday night before a 5-4-3 and 4-6-3 twin-killing in Sunday's series finale. The Red Wolves failed to turn a double play Tuesday night against Southeast Missouri and have 29 total on the year. Georgia Tech has the most in the nation with 43 on the season.
• The last one the team turned before the one against Memphis and three versus Louisiana- Lafayette was of the 7-5-4 variety in not-so-typical fashion March 20 against Georgia State. It was a shallow fly ball to left field that Garrett Rucker made a diving attempt on with runners on first and second, he held up his glove like he had the ball, but it was rolling on the ground. So both runners went back to their bases and Rucker threw it in to third baseman Tanner Ring for a force out, who then threw it to second baseman Joe Schrimpf for another force out.
• The team's season-high for double plays is four against Saint Louis Feb. 27 in the second game of a doubleheader. The team has turned six 4-6-3 double plays and 6-4-3 double plays each. The team has turned a double play 12 different ways this season.
• Arkansas State turned 34 double plays a year ago. The school record for double plays is 59 in both 1998 and 1994.

SO CLOSE, YET SO FAR
• Arkansas State has held the lead in 22 of its 28 games so far this season. The team pushed across a run in the eighth inning versus SEMO for a 2-1 lead, but ultimately lost the game 4-2. A-State only held the lead in last Friday's game against ULL. The team jumped out 7-0 before holding on to a 7-6 triumph. The Red Wolves never led in Saturday or Sunday's game but tied both games. The team struck back with a homer by Joe Schrimpf to tie the Saturday game 2-2 in the sixth inning, only to see the lead surrendered right back to Louisiana-Lafayette in the next half-inning. A-State scored its lone run Sunday in the fifth inning to that contest at 1-1, but a two-run home run after an error gave the lead back to ULL 3-1.
• The only games the Red Wolves haven't led in were the 5-0 loss to UAB in the first game of a doubleheader on Feb. 20, the March 6 loss to Milwaukee, the 2-0 loss to UTA on March 12 in the second game of a doubleheader, the March 24 loss to Georgia Southern 8-3, and the two previous losses to Louisiana-Lafayette last week.
• A-State has already been involved in six walk-off games this season, three coming in a row against Ole Miss, Morehead State, and Saint Louis. The first two were losses, but the Red Wolves defeated SLU 5-4 when Ty White delivered a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth to plate to score pinch-runner Garrett Huff. It was the team's first walk-off win since May 15, 2015 when Stuart Levy hit a sacrifice fly to defeat UALR 4-3 in 14 innings. It was the team's first walk-off hit since Matt Burgess hit a single to beat UALR on March 15, 2014 in the second game of a doubleheader, which also wound up being a 4-3 win for the Red Wolves in 14 innings. Since then, A-State defeated Southern Illinois 1-0 in walk-off fashion March 15 on a wild pitch and lost to Georgia State 5-4 on a walk-off infield single March 19. Tanner Ring gave the Red Wolves a walk-off win with a single in the bottom of the ninth against Georgia Southern March 25.

HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT
• Arkansas State was hit with six pitches over the weekend against Louisiana-Lafayette after getting hit by five in last week's midweek game at Memphis, but wasn't hit by any against Southeast Missouri April 5. That puts the Red Wolves at 53 for the season, which is tied for third in the country with Campbell. North Carolina Central is second in the nation with 58, while Jackson State is tops in the country with 61.
• The Red Wolves have a good start on chasing last year's team in the category after the 2015 squad was hit by a pitch 94 times, good for fifth in the country. Zach George led the team a season ago with 16 HBPs.
• Jake Bakamus leads the team with 12 hit-by-pitches, which is first in the SBC and eighth in the country. Matt Burgess and Jeremy Brown are tied for second most on the team with six HBP's, which also ranks sixth in the conference. 14 different players have been hit by a pitch for the team. Tony Ortiz was hit with three pitches over the weekend against Louisiana-Lafayette.

TOUCH 'EM ALL JOE (BUT HURRY)
• A-State junior infielder/catcher Joe Schrimpf hit his first home run of the season in the first game against Saint Louis Feb. 27, but it wasn't your normal home run as it was an inside-the-park home run. He smoked a ball to deep center field that hit off of the wall and
ricocheted back towards the infield. By the time the centerfielder was able to get the ball to the cut-off man, Schrimpf was already racing towards the plate. He was able to slide in safely ahead of the throw that wound up being too high for the catcher to corral.
• The inside-the-parker for Schrimpf was the first of his career and the first for the Red Wolves since Austin Baker hit one at Tomlinson Stadium against Memphis on March 25, 2014.
• The round-tripper was the team's third home run of the season after Tanner Ring and Jeremy Brown both left the yard in the first game of the year at UAB. The team has 13 homers now.

SAVE YOUR RAIN (AND SNOW) DANCES
• A-State has had six games altered due to potential rain chances causing UAB and the Red Wolves to play a doubleheader opening weekend and move the game with Ole Miss to Wednesday, Feb. 24. The two-game midweek series against Austin Peay was canceled due to rain March 8-9. The weather in the Arlington area forced the Red Wolves and UT Arlington to push back Friday's league opener to part of a Saturday doubleheader March 12. Most recently, A-State postponed its March 30 game with Mississippi Valley State to April 20.
• The Red Wolves had 26 games altered to weather a season ago with a healthy mix of both rain and snow as the culprits. The Red Wolves optioned to go to the Perfect Game Complex in Emerson, Ga., to play No. 7 Louisville instead of to Northwestern State where rain was likely on Feb. 20-21. The Red Wolves would go on to take two-of-three from the Cardinals.
• The second big alteration to the schedule was when Arkansas State shifted its home-opening Sun Belt Conference series versus UT Arlington to Smith-Wills Stadium in Jackson, Miss., due to winter weather preventing the team from playing in Jonesboro.
• All in all, the Red Wolves ended up playing seven doubleheaders, with the only one that was originally scheduled versus Illinois State on opening weekend. A-State played six consecutive doubleheaders on weekends to open the season.