A-STATE/SOUTHEAST MISSOURI SERIES HISTORY
• A-State is 35-32 all-time against Southeast Missouri State in a series that began during the 1959 season. Arkansas State claimed a 3-1 victory in that game, but it is not known where the game took place. SEMO bounced back to claim an 11-2 win in the 1960 game, but A-State won five straight contests from 1961 to the first game between the two schools in 1963. The Red Wolves won three games in the 1962 season against the Redhawks, including a 6-2 win in the
Southwest Regional. SEMO broke the streak with 4-0 and 5-4 wins to end A-State's 1963
campaign.
• More recently, the teams had split 30 games since 2000 evenly at 15-15 before SEMO's 4-2
victory April 5 made the tally 16-15 in favor of the Redhawks. The two teams have met twice every year since then except for in the 2006 and 2007 seasons when the two teams just played once in Jonesboro each season. The Redhawks won the first five meetings, before an A-State 6-1 win in Cape Girardeau broke the streak in 2002. The Red Wolves won five straight meetings during that time span from 2005 to the first game the two teams played in 2008.
• Head coach Tommy Raffo is 8-7 against Southeast Missouri in his career. A-State won both meetings in his first season in 2009 by scores of 12-1 and 17-11 before splitting in 2010. The Red Wolves won three straight (two in 2013 and first meeting of 2014) for Raffo's longest winning streak against SEMO. The two squads split last season with the Redhawks winning in Jonesboro 6-5 before a 12-10 A-State victory in Cape Girardeau. Raffo lost his seventh game to the Redhawks April 5.
• Southeast Missouri is currently 22-10 on the season and is 13-2 in Ohio Valley games. The Redhawks had an 11-game winning streak after defeating A-State April 5, but it was snapped Friday night with a 6-1 loss to Austin Peay.
NOTES FROM SOUTH ALABAMA SERIES
• Arkansas State was swept last weekend against by then No. 28 South Alabama to fall to 13-18 on the year and 4-11 in SBC play, while the Jaguars moved to 25-8 overall and 15-0 in league games. It was the first time the team had been swept since last season's series at Troy April 11-12. A-State dropped Friday's game 8-2 and blew leads in the final two games of the series before falling 12-7 and 3-2.
• A-State is currently on a six-game losing streak, which is the longest since the team lost six straight from March 23-31 during the 2013 season.
• The Red Wolves and Jaguars combined for no walks in Friday's game. South Alabama's Kevin Hill hit one batter for the only free base handed out by either team.
• The no walks theme didn't last long as both starters on Saturday walked batters in the first inning. A-State's pitching staff went on to tie the school record for walks allowed with 16. It was third time an Arkansas State team had walked 16 batters with the other two instances occurring in 1981 against Northern Illinois and 1975 against Murray State. A-State also hit two batters for 18 free bases given up.
• Joe Schrimpf hit his fourth home run in the Saturday game to tie for the team lead with four and also has the team lead in RBIs with 26 after knocking in four over the weekend.
• Daltan Lovell made two starts over the weekend and knocked in his first run of the season Saturday against the Jaguars with a RBI single to left-center field. He also scored a run in the game. He had another hit in the series and also walked twice.
• Coulton Lee made his first career start Sunday in his 62nd appearance as a member of the Red Wolves, which is tops on the active career list and ninth all-time in school history. He pitched well as he gave up three runs (one earned) in five innings on five hits with three walks and two punch outs.
• Collin Nord made his second relief appearance in a conference game Friday night and tossed two scoreless innings and only gave up one hit with no walks and two strikeouts. It was his first action since March 22 against Missouri State.
• Bryan Ayers made his first relief appearance of the season Sunday against USA and was solid with three shutout innings with one hit allowed and three strikeouts to just one walk.
NOTES FROM LAST 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.
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.
LET'S TURN TWO
• A-State is now 25th in the nation in double plays turned with 31 and also ranks as the top team in the Sun Belt Conference in the category. The Red Wolves turned two against South Alabama April 8-10 with a lineout to first and 6-4-3 twin-killing during the series. The unassisted double play by first baseman Tony Ortiz was the first of its kind this season and first unassisted double play for the team during the year.
• 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 seven 4-6-3 double plays and 6-4-3 double plays each. The team has turned a double play 13 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 24 of its 31 games so far this season. A-State led on a couple of occasions during Saturday's game before falling 12-7 and led 2-0 in Sunday's game before losing to South Alabama 3-2. The team also led last week against SEMO 2-1 before the three-run, pinch-hit home run in the eighth inning gave the Redhawks a 4-2 victory.
• 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, the two previous losses to Louisiana-Lafayette April 2 and 3, and the 8-2 loss to USA April 8.
• 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 three pitches over the weekend at South Alabama and fell to fifth in the country. Jackson State leads the nation with 64, while North Carolina Central (62), Florida A&M (59), and Southern (58) are ahead of the Red Wolves. The next closest Sun Belt Conference team is Louisiana-Lafayette with 47, which ranks 13th in the country.
• 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 13 hit-by-pitches, which is first in the SBC and seventh in the country. Matt Burgess and Jeremy Brown are tied for second most on the team with six HBP's, which also ranks 10th in the conference. 14 different players have been hit by a pitch for the team.
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 14 homers now and Schrimpf is tied for the team lead with Ring with four bombs this season. All of Schrimpf's homers since his first have gone over the fence.
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.