RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech baseball team capped a great year at home as they rolled past visiting Union University by a score of 8-3 on Tuesday afternoon. The win was the 18
th of the year at home for Tech and gave them an .860 winning percentage in games at Baswell Field for the season.
Tuesday's win was of the come-from-behind variety as Union broke open scoring first with three runs on four hits in the top of the third. The Bulldogs (17-22) also benefited from a Tech error and due to that, two of the three runs in the inning were unearned.
The Wonder Boys (25-18) would not waste any time in starting to chip away at their early deficit and scored a run in the bottom in the frame. Like Union, the Wonder Boys also benefited from a defensive error that helped them score their run.
Luke Ray, who was making his second collegiate start, led off the inning with a single through the left side. A batter later, he was taken off the base paths as
Sam Stephenson reached on a fielder's choice. While at first, Union attempted a pickoff of Stephenson, but the throw was errant ant up the first base line. That allowed the speedy Stephenson to take third.
At third with less than two outs, Stephenson then scored in the next at-bat as
Trace Maddux grounded out to shortstop.
An inning later, the Wonder Boys knotted the game at three-all thanks to a dropped fly ball in right field with two outs. That drop by Union allowed two runs to score.
The Wonder Boys then started to tack on runs as they added a run in the fifth, three in the sixth and one in the seventh to take an 8-3 lead.
The run in the fifth scored on a
Carter Thessing single through the left side. The runs in the sixth all scored in different ways. Detweiler drove in the first with a double to left.
Evan Hafley later singled through the left side and
Landon Lord, who came on as a pinch-runner for Hafley following his single, scored on a wild pitch.
The seventh inning run was a good piece of hitting opposite field double to left off the bat of Maddux.
On the pitching side, the Wonder Boys used six pitchers.
Marshall Brown got the start, his first collegiate, and pitched 2.0 innings without allowing a run. He did give up two hits, walked none and struck out one.
Grant Shahan had the next 2.0 innings and allowed five hits, three runs (one earned), walked none and struck out none.
JT Cafferty got the game settled in from a pitching standpoint for the Wonder Boys as he pitched the next 3.0 innings. He would not allow a run, one hit, one walk and struck out two. Cafferty also picked up the win, his first career win.
Armando Romero pitched a clean eighth inning and allowed one hit while striking out two.
Patrick Miner and
Ty Van Meter combined to pitch the ninth and struck out the side in order. Miner had the first two Ks, while Van Meter got the final out.
The Wonder Boys will now prepare for one final weekend series in the regular season as they are set to travel to Searcy to take on Harding. The three-game set is slated to begin on Friday night with a 6 p.m. first-pitch. The series is then scheduled to conclude with a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 1 p.m.
