Box Score RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. — In a game where both teams appeared ready to cruise home with the victory on multiple occasions, the Arkansas Tech baseball team was the final one to hold the momentum, as Patrick Castleberry's two-out grand slam in the bottom of the 12th inning propelled the Wonder Boys to a 13-9 victory over Southeastern Oklahoma in the first game of a three-game Great American Conference series Friday night at Tech Field.

The Wonder Boys (15-10, 4-5 GAC) picked up three-hit days from both Caleb McKinnon and Marcus Wilson, while Castleberry, Keenan Jumper, Cole Fergus and John Lassiter each had multi-hit days on a crazy evening. Cody Jones headlined a Tech pitching staff that showed up biggest during the big moments to help shut down the Savage Storm (9-11, 5-6 GAC).

After already coming back two times in the game, Tech was tied with Southeastern heading to the bottom of the 12th, and quickly saw itself pick up the first two outs. McKinnon lifted his third hit of the day to right, followed by Wilson's third on a hit and run that sent McKinnon to third. Connor Brady got down in the count 0-2, but worked an impressive seven-pitch walk to give Castleberry his shot, and the senior delivered, crushing the 2-0 offering for his 10^th home run of the season and the Wonder Boys' 11th victory in their past 12 tries.

The Savage Storm were able to get five runs off of Jones before the junior settled down, using a three-run top of the third to take a 5-0 advantage over the hosts. After the Storm plated its final run, Jones went on a tear, inducing a double play to end the third to start a run of sitting down 11 consecutive batters. The streak took just 29 pitches to complete from the end of the third through the first out of the seventh.

In that time, the Tech offense found its bearings, scoring in the fourth, fifth and sixth to jump in the lead. The score in the bottom of the fourth was the quickest, as Kris Ayers deposited the second pitch of the inning over the right field fence on a line drive to get the Wonder Boys on the board. After the second of Jones' quick innings, the hosts put up a three-spot in the fifth, getting started when Collin O'Neil was hit by a pitch and Fergus followed with a single to get two on base. Lassiter attempted to bunt the pair over, appeared to beat out the throw from the Southeastern pitcher, which went high and allowed all three runners to move up a base and O'Neil to score. McKinnon singled to plate Fergus, and Lassiter cut the score to 5-3 when he scored on a Wilson fielder's choice.

Bryan Heward got the bottom of the sixth started with a hard-hit ball that the Storm third baseman couldn't handle, picking up two bases before moving over the third on Jumper's single. O'Neil's sac bunt was enough to move Jumper up to second, and Heward would go on to tie it on a Fergus fielder's choice, followed by Lassiter beating out an infield single to push Jumper across to take the lead at 6-5. Jones kicked off the top of the seventh with a punchout, Nate Rutherford worked around two runners to record the second out, and Bryson Morris came in to get the third out on a strikeout with runners on second and third.

Ryan Vruggink entered in the top of the eighth, quickly wrapping up another 1-2-3 inning, allowing Tech to tack on an insurance run in the bottom half. O'Neil knocked a one-out single to center to get it started, moved up on a wild pitch, and scored on Fergus' single to left center to stretch the lead to 7-5 before Southeastern plated a pair in the top half of the ninth to send the contest into extras.

The Storm made it four straight runs scored with another pair in the top of the 11th inning, but Tech would respond with two of its own in dramatic fashion. Wilson fouled off a pair of two-strike pitches before kicking things off with a single to center, and came around to score on Castleberry's two-strike double to cut the lead to one. Castleberry moved up to third on a wild pitch, and Jumper knocked him home after a tough at-bat to keep the Wonder Boys' chances alive headed to the 12th.
Tech and Southeastern are right back at it Saturday, with a doubleheader scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. back at Tech Field.