HAMMOND – The Southeastern Louisiana University baseball team resumes its five-game homestand on Friday when it opens a three-game series against Southland Conference rival Central Arkansas at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field.

The series opens on Friday at 6 p.m. before the teams continue their series at 2 p.m. on Saturday. The series finale is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday. All three games can be heard in the Hammond area on KSLU-FM (90.9) and on the internet at www.LionSports.net. Live in-game statistics will also be available for all three games at www.LionSports.net.

Southeastern (20-2, 5-1 SLC) enters its third conference series of the season ranked No. 21 by Collegiate Baseball, No. 25 in the USA Today Baseball Weekly/ESPN Coaches Poll and No. 27 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Poll. The Lions opened their homestand with a come-from-behind 6-5 victory over South Alabama as senior Chris Ernest delivered the game-winning single in the bottom of the ninth inning.

The Lions enter their series against UCA (7-14, 2-4 SLC) batting .298 as a team while posting a 3.32 team earned run average.

Sophomore Justin Boudreaux leads Southeastern at the plate with a .364 average, six home runs and 27 RBI. Jeff Harkensee, who belted his third home run of the season for the Lions against South Alabama, is next in hitting at .349 with 18 RBI.

Chris Franklin (.343-0-7), Cody Gougler (.338-3-21) and Cass Hargis (.319-0-16) are next in hitting for the Lions, who are 12-1 at home and earned a three-game sweep of UTSA two weeks in their Southland Conference opener.

Southeastern will send Tyler Watkins (2-1, 3.99 ERA) to the mound on Friday with UCA expected to counter with right-hander Michael Wild (2-3, 4.35 ERA). Southeastern will send right-hander Brandon Efferson (5-0, 1.87 ERA) to the hill on Saturday with the Bears slated to start left-hander Dustin Ward (1-1, 7.52 ERA).

The starting pitchers for both teams for Sunday in the series' finale is to be announced.

UCA, which has dropped its last three games, took two of three games at Lamar last weekend after being swept by visiting Stephen F. Austin two weeks ago. The Bears dropped an 8-7 contest to Lamar in the series finale on Sunday dropping a pair of games at Missouri State this week.

Ethan Harris leads UCA at the plate with a .341 average followed by Blake Roberts – the team leader in home runs (4) and RBI (16) – at .338. Zack Dickson (.327-1-8) and Clay Washington (.327-1-10) are next for the Bears, who hit .273 as a team.

Tickets are available by calling the Southeastern Athletic Ticket Office at (985) 549-5466 or on-line at www.LionSports.net.