WEATHERFORD, Okla. – The No. 20-ranked Arkansas Tech baseball team broke out a monster 12-run inning in the top of the seventh inning to help propel them to a 17-0 run-rule victory over Southwestern Oklahoma on Friday afternoon to open the three-game series with the Bulldogs.
The shutout victory marked a career milestone for head coach
Dave Dawson as it was the 400
th win for him as head coach of Arkansas Tech. It was also the third shutout of the season for the Wonder Boys (20-9, 13-3 GAC) with all three of those games coming in starts made by
John Gray.
With the lengthy top of the seventh inning and the game well in hand, Gray would not go back out to possibly close out the shutout. Rather, his outing ended after 6.0 complete innings. In earning his fourth win of the season, Gray scattered five hits, walked one, hit one and struck out two.
Jordan Muschalek perfectly handled the final inning for Tech, registering a strikeout in the process.
Offensively, the Wonder Boys got their day going in the top of the second inning as
Markos Cabranes drove in
Nick Jones on a sacrifice fly out to left field. Earlier in the inning, Jones led off with a double to left-centerfield and then was moved to third on a groundout by
Keaton Ranallo.
In the third inning, Tech put together a two-out rally for their second run of the game.
Sam Stephenson sparked the rally with an infield single.
Cade McBride then followed with a single up the middle.
Sawyer Duddleston cashed in the RBI with a single to left.
An inning later, the Wonder Boys turned to small ball to push across two more runs. After Ranallo led off with a single and Cabranes walked, both were advanced 90-feet on a successful sacrifice bunt by
Brandon Bunton.
Logan Schwenke then got down a successful safety squeeze that scored Ranallo. Tech went back to the bunt again and
Luke Ray this time collected the RBI on a successful sacrifice bunt.
After no runs in the fifth, the Wonder Boys put another run on the board after Ranallo reached third to lead off the inning on a ball that banged off the wall. Two batters later, Ranallo was able to score on an errant throw by the Bulldogs (14-13, 8-8 GAC) catcher.
In the bottom of the inning, SWOSU put together their only scoring threat of the game. After a swinging strikeout to start the inning, the Bulldogs loaded the bases with one out thanks to a double, a single and a hit-by-pitch. Not long after loading the bases, however, the Wonder Boys would get out of the inning as Gray induced a 4-3 double play to escape the threat.
The Wonder Boys then put the game completely away with the aforementioned 12-run inning, ballooning their lead from 5-0 to 17-0. In that inning, Tech hammered out 10 hits, drew two walks, was hit-by-a-pitch and took advantage of two SWOSU errors.
Games two and three of the series will take place on Saturday afternoon as the doubleheader is slated to begin at Noon.
