RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech baseball team started Great American Conference play just about as good as one possibly can as they got great pitching, solid defense and offensive production throughout their lineup in a 10-0 shutout win over Oklahoma Baptist on Friday afternoon out at Baswell Field.
The great pitching was headlined by starter
John Gray. The transfer right-hander was in full command on the mound from the word go as he struck out the first five batters of the game and nine of the first 11 that he faced. Gray would go on to pitch seven complete innings and add two more Ks to his total to give him a season-high 11. He would not allow a run and scattered four hits, all singles, along with one walk and one hit-by-pitch as earned his first win as a Wonder Boy.
Kade Cartwright followed and pitched one inning of scoreless baseball with a pair of strikeouts. Cartwright getting the game through eight was all that was needed as the Wonder Boys (5-4, 1-0 GAC) offense eventually scored 10 runs to invoke the run-rule.
The hit that caused the game to end early was a two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth off the bat of
Sawyer Duddleston. The homer was the first of the season for the Springdale native.
Prior to that game-ending hit, the Wonder Boys had scored in the second, third and seventh innings of the game against the Bison.
The scoring started for the Wonder Boys in the second inning as
Shane Poe singled to right field to score
Markos Cabranes, who had previously doubled to right field with two outs. An inning later, the Wonder Boys hung a crooked number with three runs on two hits.
That inning was started with a four-pitch walk to
Cade McBride. Two batters later, the Wonder Boys had runners on first and second as
Nick Jones reached on a fielder's choice that left the Bison without a play to make. The two then advanced 90-feet on a wild pitch to put them in scoring position. That was during the at-bat of
Logan Schwenke, who then singled to centerfield to score McBride and move Jones to third.
Keaton Ranallo then doubled down the deep right field line to plate Jones and Schwenke and give Tech a 4-0 lead.
In the seventh, Tech got things rolling again on offense and scored four runs on three hits with one Oklahoma Baptist error as well.
Duddleston led that seventh inning off by a first-pitch hit-by-pitch. He then took second on a wild pitch. Two batters later, there were runners on the corners with one out thanks to a Schwenke single to center. The Bison then got their second out of the inning at the plate as they cut down Duddleston trying to score on a grounder to the shortstop.
The Wonder Boys would be undeterred by that play at the plate and went on to score four two-out runs. The first of those came on a single by
Brandon Bunton followed by a RBI single by
Markos Cabranes. The other two runs then scored on wild pitches to give Tech an 8-0 lead heading into the eighth, and eventual final, inning.
The Wonder Boys and Bison will conclude their weekend series on Saturday afternoon with a doubleheader that is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. out at Baswell Field.
