Little Rock Opens 2021 Season at Oral Roberts Sunday and Monday

GAMES 1 & 2 - ORAL ROBERTS
Dates	Sunday, Feb. 21 & Monday, Feb. 22
Times	Sunday, Feb. 21 - 1 p.m. Monday, Feb. 22 - 3 p.m.
Location	Tulsa, Okla.
Field	J.L. Johnson Stadium
Records	Little Rock (0-0, 0-0 SBC) Oral Roberts (0-0, 0-0 Summitt)
Watch	TBD
Live Stats	ORUAthletics.com

LITTLE ROCK – After 350 days, Little Rock finally returns to the diamond when the Trojans open up the 2021 season with a two-game series with Oral Roberts Sunday, Feb. 21 and Monday, Feb. 22 at J.L. Johnson Stadium in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Game one against the Golden Eagles is set for a 1 p.m. first pitch on Sunday, followed by a 3 p.m. start Monday.
 
Adjust on the Fly
Little Rock wasn't originally scheduled to start the 2021 season in Oklahoma. The Trojans were scheduled to play three games at Reckling Park in Houston over the weekend, facing Rice Friday, Houston Baptist Saturday and Washington Sunday. But the winter storms that hit the area over the past week forced plans to change, resulting in the two-game series in Tulsa to open the season.
 
Last We Saw You
Little Rock's last game was played on March 8, 2020 – a 5-1 win over Southern Miss in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Aaron Funk went the distance for the Trojans, striking out nine in a complete game victory, as Kale Emhsoff homered in the first in his final game in a Trojan uniform. Three days later, the remainder of the 2020 season was canceled due to the global coronavirus pandemic.
 
Year Seven
Head coach Chris Curry returns for his seventh year at the helm of the Trojans, sitting at 129 career victories and 73 Sun Belt wins, three shy of matching Gary Hogan for the most conference coaching victories in program history. He has taken the Trojans to the Sun Belt tournament in four of the five seasons the tournament was held and has seen nine of his former Trojans sign with MLB franchises.
 
Scouting the Golden Eagles
Oral Roberts enters the 2021 season after going 6-10 in the shortened 2020 season as head coach Ryan Folmar begins his 10th season leading the Golden Eagles. As a team, ORU batted .236 last season and returns its top eight batters to the lineup, led by senior OF Jordan Wiley (.317 BA, 4 HR, 9 RBI) and junior INF Adam Oviedo (.302 BA, 5 HR, 13 RBI). On the mound, the Golden Eagles had a 4.45 ERA, led by senior Hunter Swift's 1.12 ERA in 16.0 IP with 18 strikeouts.
 
Series History
Little Rock and Oral Roberts have met 23 times heading into the weekend with the Golden Eagles holding an 18-5 edge in the all-time series. Last season, Little Rock rallied from a 2-0 deficit behind solo home runs from Tim Dixon and Kale Emshoff in the fifth, then tied the game at 3-3 in the sixth before falling 4-3 in 11 innings in Tulsa. Little Rock is 2-13 all-time at J.L. Johnson Stadium.

Weather Forecast
After the snow and ice that crippled the area this past week, temperatures should creep up and help the melting process over the weekend. Sunday is calling for highs in the mid 40s in Tulsa with a chance of rain, while Monday is forecasted to be sunny in the low 50s.
 
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW:
 
1. Little Rock returns one of the most experienced pitching staffs in the Sun Belt as the roster has combined for 539 innings pitched at the Division I level and 544 strikeouts. Hayden Arnold (134 IP, 145 Ks) and Aaron Funk (110.1 IP, 102 Ks) are both back to anchor the weekend rotation for the Trojans.
 
2. Funk enters the year as the Sun Belt's Preseason Pitcher of the Year following a breakout 2020 season. He led the league with 31.1 innings pitched, posting a 2.01 ERA with 37 strikeouts, ranking  26th nationally. He pitched two complete games in 2020 as his 17-strikeout performance against North Alabama on March 1 was tied for the most in a game nationally last season and tied a Sun Belt single-game record.
 
3. Little Rock returns nearly its entire starting lineup from 2020, returning six players who started at least 15 games and including a pair of .300 hitters in Nathan Lyons and Miguel Soto. Lyons batted .329 for Little Rock last season, registering 23 hits and six RBI, while Soto tallied multi-hit showings in his first seven games of the season, posting a .302 average with four doubles and seven RBI.
 
4. Sophomore centerfielder Tyler Williams was coming into his own in his freshman season and has caught the eye of scouts nationally. Williams was rated as the top Sun Belt prospect in the 2022 class and started 15 games for Little Rock in 2020, batting .220 with two doubles, a triple and a home run while stealing four bases.

5. Each of the last three meetings between Little Rock and Oral Roberts were unable to be settled in nine innings. In addition to last year's 11-inning thriller, the teams played a pair of 10-inning games in 2019 with the home team emerging victorious - a 4-3 Oral Roberts win in Tulsa on March 26 before a 6-5 Trojan victory at Gary Hogan Field on May 7 off a walk-off blast from Riley Pittman. 
 
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