To prep his team for a season unlike any in program history, UA-Little Rock baseball coach Chris Curry dipped into one of his few non-baseball interests.
“I’m kind of a Navy SEAL and Special Forces nerd,” said Curry, whose Trojans won last season’s Ohio Valley Conference tournament before taking three games in NCAA regional play. “And I think there are a lot of things they do from a team and leadership standpoint that we can copy.”
All that is a nice way of saying the Trojans were pushed hard during fall workouts. Curry divided his roster into teams and pitted them against each other, all in the name of building both mental and physical strength. Swimming, weight-lifting, even a rapid up-and-back day at Pinnacle Mountain — if it was strenuous and competitive, Little Rock’s players were doing it.
“Iron sharpens iron,” said Trey Hill, a senior center-fielder from Farmington. “We just have that mentality of always competing with one another and making each other better.”
Not that Hill and his teammates were exactly having a blast when it came time for those competitions.
“Their tongues were dragging a little bit,” Curry said. “We did a challenge in our indoor facility that was probably comparable to a Cross-Fit session, with some trash cans around the floor to make sure we didn’t make a mess. But we made it a point, within reason, to kind of push them to their edges without a bat or without a ball in their hand.”
It was a different version of fall ball for Curry and his players, but that said, nothing about the 2026 baseball season will be the same for Little Rock. The Trojans garnered both statewide and national attention last spring, when an injury-ravaged Little Rock team limped into the OVC tournament as an eighth-seed, only to win five games and move on to the NCAA regionals in Baton Rouge.
There is more riding on the Trojans in 2026 than just a chance to run it back. The resulting attention from last season provided gas for the university’s already-planned push for new athletic facilities, including a new on-campus baseball facility. Nothing is guaranteed in the world of college athletics fund-raising, but winning tends to make it easier to prime the pumps.
It’s typical to hear coaches talk of shutting down outside noise and keeping past seasons in the past, but Curry has taken a different track.
“My opinion is that you need to kind of lay those things out on the table,” Curry said. “Just talk about them, and say that you are expected to win here. We were talking about that during the recruiting process.”
That said, the Trojans coaching staff brought in 23 new players in the offseason, several as transfers. Among those looking to make an immediate impact will be junior shortstop Jerdy Lopez, who arrived at Little Rock after hitting .327 for a well-regarded Western Oklahoma Junior College program. Curry also sought to beef up his pitching staff, bringing Maumelle product Tag Andrews in from Arkansas and left-hander Brigden Parker from Kansas.
Among the returners, Hill is hoping to return to the starting lineup after struggling with injuries a year ago. Infielder Angel returns after being named Most Outstanding Player for the Baton Rouge Regional, as does right-hander and Joe T. Robinson product Jack Cline.
Curry is hoping the influx of new talent and fewer injuries will translate to more depth and, better yet, more competition.
“Now there’s a high level of expectation for winning,” Curry said. “For the returners, last year’s over. Just because you were a very good player last year, your name’s not in Sharpie in the lineup.”
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