RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech baseball team picked up their first win in Great American Conference play on Friday night as they shutout visiting Southern Nazarene, 9-0.
The Wonder Boys would get started offensively in the first inning by scoring a run on a clutch two-out RBI single by
Logan Schwenke. Two batters prior to that,
Christian Olea had extended the inning after two quick outs with a single up the middle.
After being retired in order in the second, the Wonder Boys struck for four runs in the bottom of the third to jolt out to a 5-0 lead.
Grant Jones led that inning off with a double to center.
Markos Cabranes then drew a walk. During the ensuing at-bat, Jones scored from second and Cabranes took second on a failed pickoff attempt by the Crimson Storm.
Cabranes then got to third with no outs on a passed ball, but was in danger of being stranded there after consecutive outs. The inning continued however on a hit-by-pitch to Schwenke. Another passed ball was uncorked by SNU, scoring Cabranes and moving Schwenke to second.
Nick Jones then drew a walk and he and Schwenke proceeded to steal second and third ahead of the big hit in the frame, a two-RBI double to right-centerfield by
Shane Poe.
An inning later, the Wonder Boys added three more runs to take an 8-0 lead. The big hits in that frame were a RBI triple by G. Jones, and a two-RBI single by Ranallo. The Wonder Boys tacked on their ninth run of the game on a sacrifice fly by
Aaron Hogue in the bottom of the eighth.
The Wonder Boys used a total of four pitchers to get through the series opener.
John Gray made the start and picked up the win after going 5.0 innings. He would scatter three hits and worked around four walks while striking out seven.
Aiden Kennon,
JT Cafferty and
Kade Cartwright all saw action out of the bullpen.
The series is set to conclude on Saturday afternoon with a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. from Baswell Field.
