ALVA, Okla. – The Arkansas Tech baseball team suffered a 3-2 setback in the opening game of their weekend series on the road at Northwestern Oklahoma on Friday night.
After being scoreless through four innings of play, the Wonder Boys were the first to crack the scoreboard in the top of the fifth on a RBI single by
Logan Schwenke. Prior to that RBI knock by Schwenke, the Wonder Boys had loaded the bases with one out.
Grant Jones led off the inning with a single to right field.
Markos Cabranes then moved him into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt.
Nick Jones and
Keaton Ranallo then drew back-to-back walks to load the bases for Schwenke.
While the Rangers did not respond in the bottom of the fifth, they did push across the tying run in the bottom of the sixth. Tech, however, regained the lead with a run in the top of the seventh.
This time it was
Christian Olea that provided the RBI single as he drove in N. Jones, who walked three batters later. Once more, the Rangers were able to get the run back and tie the game, doing so this time the next half inning.
Neither team scored in the eighth and in the ninth, the Wonder Boys threatened to take their third lead of the game as they had two runners in scoring position with one out. Unfortunately, they would not get the clutch hit in the frame and the game moved to the bottom of the ninth with the score still tied.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Rangers worked a leadoff walk and later got a two-out infield single with the bases loaded to end the game, 3-2.
The Wonder Boys and Rangers will conclude their series with a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon starting at 1 p.m.
