CONWAY, Ark. — Central Arkansas worked out of a ninth-inning jam to secure a 5-3 win Saturday over the Bellarmine University baseball team in Atlantic Sun Conference play at Bear Stadium.

In doing so, Central Arkansas (15-22, 6-11 ASUN) clinched the series against Bellarmine (6-32, 5-12) after capturing each of the first two games.

Trailing 5-3 heading into the last inning, Bellarmine had a golden chance to at least tie the contest after getting runners on second and third with no outs following a leadoff single by junior second baseman Andres Castro, who advanced to third on two wild pitches, and a walk and stolen base by junior right fielder Jake Agarwal.

After Mason Griffin settled down and followed with a strikeout for UCA, Hunter Alexander entered and induced a shallow fly out before closing out the win with a game-ending strikeout. Griffin recorded 3.0 shutout innings in relief of winning pitcher Charlie Christensen, who allowed three runs in 5.1 innings.

Junior right-hander Mike Sokol fired 2.2 shutout innings and senior right-hander Ryan Johnson logged 2.0 scoreless innings for Bellarmine, which has received stellar relief pitching in the first two games.

However, the Knights' offense has been relatively quiet. Sophomore catcher Charlie Rife had a two-out, two-run single in the second and sophomore designated hitter Brady Morse added an RBI single in the sixth to account for BU's runs.

Morse and junior first baseman Casey Sorg collected two hits apiece for Bellarmine. Central Arkansas did all its damage in the run column in the earlier portion of the game, scoring three runs in the first and tacking on two more in the fourth.

The series finale is set for 2 p.m. (ET) Sunday.

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