HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The No. 8-seeded Arkansas Tech baseball team lost their opening round game of the 2022 Great American Conference Baseball Tournament on Saturday afternoon by a score of 17-2 against top-seeded and consensus top-10 nationally-ranked Southern Arkansas.
The Wonder Boys (25-22) faced a tall order in their opening round matchup as the top-seeded Muleriders (38-11) pitched their ace Jeremy Adorno, who came into the game an unblemished 13-0. Adorno was given early run support as SAU plated two runs in the bottom of the first inning. The Muleriders later added a run in the third to go up 3-0.
In the top of fourth inning, the Wonder Boys got to Adorno for the first time as
Trace Maddux hit a leadoff home run for Tech's first hit and run of the game.
Neither team scored in their next trips to the plate, but the Muleriders began to pull away in the fifth with a three-run frame to make it a 6-1 game. The Wonder Boys got one of those runs back in the top of the sixth as
Josh Detweiler hit a sacrifice fly to score
Sam Stephenson, who led off the inning with a walk.
From there, however, the SAU offense took off scoring 11 runs over their final three trips to the plate. The Muleriders would score a run in the sixth and five runs in both the seventh and eighth innings.
Patrick Miner got the start for the Wonder Boys on the mound and the senior right-hander pitching into the sixth inning and struck out six, bringing his season total to 90. He also pushed his career K total to 208.
With the loss, the Wonder Boys will now have to battle their way through the loser's bracket. Their first elimination game will be against No. 4-seed Southeastern Oklahoma on Sunday afternoon. First-pitch for the Mother's Day contest is scheduled for 3:50 p.m.
