DURANT, Okla. – The No. 14-ranked Arkansas Tech baseball team came out on the short end of a slugfest with Southeastern Oklahoma to open Great American Conference play on Friday afternoon as the Savage Storm won by a score of 9-7.
The two teams combined for 16 runs on 22 hits in the game. Of those combined 22 hits, 12 went for extra bases with a total of five leaving the ballpark.
The Wonder Boys (4-2, 0-1 GAC) accounted for three of those homers with
Kandon Bennett,
Yadier Medina and
Shelby Quiggins leaving the yard, but the biggest blast of the game favored Southeastern as it broke a 7-all tie in the bottom of the eighth and proved to be the game-winner.
Before the heroics of the late-inning home run by the Savage Storm (8-2, 1-0 GAC), Friday's series-opener was a wild back-and-forth affair.
Tech got on the board first with a run in the top of the first on a RBI double by
Trace Maddux. Southeastern answered right back and then some in the bottom of the frame with three runs on two hits. The two hits were run-scoring doubles. A half inning later, Bennett hit his bomb to tie the game at 3-all as it also scored
Ommar Jackson, who singled in the at-bat prior.
Two more runs scored for the Savage Storm in the bottom of the second as they pressed ahead 5-3.
Home runs accounted for Tech's three runs in the top of the third as Medina and Quiggins went back-to-back. Medina's bomb was a two-run shot that scored Maddux and tied the game at 5-all. Quiggins was a solo shot out to right-centerfield that gave the Wonder Boys another one-run lead.
No further runs came around to score until the bottom of the fifth when Southeastern plated a run to tie the game up at six. A quick answer followed by the Wonder Boys as Jackson drove in Quiggins on a sacrifice fly to left field.
That Wonder Boy lead was not long for the game again as the Savage Storm pushed across the tying run in the bottom of the sixth.
Neither team scored in the seventh and the Wonder Boys were turned away in the top of the eighth. In the bottom of the eighth, Southeastern took advantage of extra opportunities at the plate and cashed in with the aforementioned go-ahead two-run home run. Neither of the runs that scored on the homer were earned.
Suddenly trailing by two, the Wonder Boys quickly brought the potential game-tying run to the plate after
Ty Van Meter singled to lead off the inning. The Wonder Boys would be retired in order after that, however, ending the game.
The Wonder Boys and Savage Storm will conclude their three-game series on Saturday with a doubleheader starting at Noon out at Mike Metheny Field in Durant.
