With the powerhouses Virginia and hometown Southern Miss gone from the Hattiesburg Regional, the Regional Championship would see the red-hot Little Rock Trojans taking on the Jacksonville State Gamecocks. For Little Rock, Sunday night was a chance to not only win the Hattiesburg Regional but to reach a school’s first Super Regional in just the third overall trip to the NCAA Tournament. 

As we’ve seen out of Little Rock last season in Baton Rouge, the Trojans came to the Hattiesburg Regional on a mission and carried a perfect 2-0 regional record into Sunday night’s championship game with Jacksonville State. 

On the other side of the spectrum, on Sunday, was a Jacksonville State team looking to fight another day, entering the day needing to win one over Virginia just to reach the Regional Final, and would need a win over Little Rock on Sunday night to extend the season. Once again, setting the scene for an insane night of championship baseball at Pete Taylor Park. 

At this point in the season, with either team, the nerves can be overwhelming to say the least when you’re on the verge of doing something no other team in school history has ever done, but Little Rock has been this close before when they almost stunned LSU last season, so using that experience to better understand the moment was the standard for the Trojans on Sunday night. 

Little Rock would go with Nic Bronzini as the starter on Sunday night. Bronzini would give the Trojans four complete innings, giving up seven hits and two runs while striking out two batters. The Little Rock defense would back up their starter well on Sunday, setting the tone for the rest of the game. Little Rock would turn to three more guys to close out the game, as the combined unit struck out six Jacksonville State batters and only gave up three runs. 

As far as the bats go, Little Rock jumped out to an early 3-2 lead through four innings before adding another run in the 5th, before adding two more insurance runs in the bottom half of the 8th inning to extend the lead to 6-3, putting all the pressure on Jacksonville State in the top half of the 9th inning. What’s crazy about Little Rock tonight is that there were no home runs, just timely hitting, and patience at the plate, and that’s all they needed to get the job done on Sunday night. 

With over fifty years of baseball history, to finally have this breakthrough moment could set the standard for generations of Trojans to come. All it takes is one moment like this to solidify the program and to prove that trusting the process laid forth by Coach Chris Curry and his staff will have generations to come in a place to win championships and forever leave their mark on Little Rock Baseball. Honestly, this weekend for Little Rock was not only good for the program itself, but once again hit home the point of College Baseball being the sport of the people, where no matter the roster size, the NIL budget, or even down to the facilities, baseball has and will always be the great equalizer. With that, Little Rock is now just two wins away from reaching the College World Series. 

With the win over Jacksonville State, Little Rock will now await the winner of the Gainesville Region, as Troy and Florida have to play a winner-takes-all game on Monday evening. 

Photo Credits- Little Rock Baseball on X