JACKSON, Tenn. – The Arkansas Tech baseball team left little drama in their final mid-week non-conference game as they cruised past Union on the road, 13-0
The Wonder Boys (29-17) got started early with a four-run first inning.
Cade McBride led it all off with a hit-by-pitch.
Sam Stephenson then singled up the middle to move McBride to third. After a steal of second by Stephenson and the first out of the inning being recorded,
Nick Jones singled up the middle as well to drive in McBride. On that same play, Stephenson was able to score on an error by the Union second baseman.
Two batters later,
Logan Schwenke hit the first of his two home runs in the game as he parked one out to centerfield.
In the third, Tech added two more runs thanks to a RBI double by
Keaton Ranallo and a RBI groundout by Schwenke.
Comfortably leading since the start, the Wonder Boys really opened the game up in the sixth inning as they scored seven runs on just two hits. The two hits came in succession and led off the inning. Both were also solo home runs with Schwenke connecting for his second big fly and
Brandon Bunton registering his first career homer.
After those back-to-back jacks, the Wonder Boys made consecutive outs, but the inning was far from over. McBride then was hit-by-a-pitch to extend the inning and that, in turn, led to six-straight batters reaching without the benefit of a hit and five more runs scoring in the inning.
All of that offense was in support of
Ethan Fritz, who was making his sixth mid-week start of the season. Fritz would go on to have one of his best overall outings as he pitched 5.0 scoreless innings and allowed only three hits and one walk while registering one strikeout.
After Fritz, the Wonder Boys used two arms the rest of the way with
Jack Rector pitching the sixth and
Marshall Brown the seventh. Neither allowed a hit and combined to strikeout three.
The Wonder Boys will now prepare for their final weekend conference series of the regular season as they will host Harding this coming weekend. The three-game series with the Bisons is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. on Friday and conclude with a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
