Kris Armstrong is a bad man: JU senior third baseman adds three more homers in victory over CAU

Garry Smits, Florida Times-Union
·2 min read
Jacksonville University third baseman Kris Armstrong has hit 12 home runs in his last 12 games.
Jacksonville University third baseman Kris Armstrong has hit 12 home runs in his last 12 games.

The carnage wreaked on Central Arkansas by Jacksonville University graduate senior third baseman Kris Armstrong on the weekend at Sessions Stadium reads like box score lines by fictional character Roy Hobbs when he was rampaging through the National League to lead the New York Knights to the pennant.

Armstrong, a transfer from the University of Florida and the son of former Major League pitcher Jack Armstrong, hit three home runs in one game for the second day in a row in JU’s 12-2 rout of Central Arkansas on Sunday. His first two homers were three-run shots and he added a solo homer.

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Armstrong’s chance for four in one game was thwarted, in part, by his teammates. The Dolphins (18-8, 4-2) scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh, the second one coming on an bases-loaded walk drawn by freshman Justin Nadeau, ending the game with Armstrong on deck.

Here are his final lines:

Friday: 1 for 4.

Saturday: 4 for 5, three homers, eight RBI.

Sunday: 3 for 3, three homers, seven RBI.

Because Saturday's game started at 2 p.m. and Sunday's game started at noon, Armstrong hit is six homers in roughly a 24-hour period.

His totals for the three-game sweep: 8 for 12 (.667), six runs, 15 RBI, six homers, a 2.083 slugging percentage and a 2.75 OBP/slugging percentage.

Armstrong has 16 homers and 46 RBI for the season. He’s two behind Florida’s Jac Caglianone (who is on his own power spree at Ole Miss this week, with four homers so far) for the national lead in homers and leads the nation in RBI.

In Armstrong’s last 12 games, he’s hitting .460 (23 for 50) with 17 runs scored, 32 RBI and 12 homers. He has a slugging percentage of 1.14, an on-base percentage of .452 and an on-base/slugging percentage of 1.7128 during that span.

With 29 games remaining, Armstrong is threatening some of the longest-standing JU hitting records for one season. He moved into a six-way tie for third on the single-season home run record and is six behind Randy Riley, who set the team record with 22 homers in 1984.

Riley holds the RBI record with 87, also in 1984.

Armstrong has matched the most homers in one season by a JU player since Austin Hays hit 16 in 2016.

JU’s next games will be a three-game set beginning Friday at Florida Gulf Coast – which leads the ASUN in home runs.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Kris Armstrong continues his rampage for JU Dolphins with three more homers