RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech baseball team completed a three-game sweep at home against Southwestern Oklahoma on Saturday as the Wonder Boys won both ends of their doubleheader with the Bulldogs. Both games were effectively won by the Wonder Boys in their final at-bats as they scored 10 runs total in those final innings.
GAME ONE
In the opener, Arkansas Tech held a 2-0 lead through the first six innings of action as starter
Emiliano Mata was pitching a gem of a game against the Bulldogs. Through those six innings, Mata allowed just three hits and had seven strikeouts.
The two runs scored in support of Mata were driven in off the bat of
Grant Jones as he had a RBI single in the second and a solo home run in the fifth.
In the top of the seventh, Mata returned to the mound, but gave up a run on one-out solo home run to make it a 2-1 game. An inning later, with Mata out of the game, the Bulldogs tied the game at two-all with a run in the top of the eighth.
The Wonder Boys would respond in their half of the eighth and took a 4-2 lead thanks to a clutch two-out, two-RBI double off the bat of
Keaton Ranallo. Prior to that,
Nick Jones had led off the inning with an infield single and was promptly pinch-ran for by
Aaron Hogue.
A sacrifice bunt by
Brandon Bunton and an intentional walk to
Logan Schwenke put runners on first and second with one out. A wild pitch soon followed to move both into scoring position. The Bulldogs picked up a big second out in the next at-bat, but Ranallo was still able to come through.
Now with the lead, the Wonder Boys sent
Simon Murray back out to the mound for the ninth after he initially came on for Mata in the eighth. Murray would retire the first batter faced but allowed a walk to the next batter. That prompted the Wonder Boys to bring in their closer,
Mason Griffin.
Griffin would need just three pitches to end the game as he induced a 6-3 double play.
GAME TWO
In the seven-inning nightcap, SWOSU took their first lead of the series with two runs in the top of the second. An inning later, the Bulldogs had added a run to go up 3-0.
That score held until the bottom of the fifth when the Wonder Boys finally cracked the scoreboard thanks to a solo home run off the bat of
Brendyn Bard.
An inning later, the Wonder Boys' offense erupted for eight runs on nine hits as they slingshot themselves into the lead, 9-3. That major offensive inning saw the Wonder Boys send 11 batters to the plate. Of the nine hits in the inning, four went for extra-bases as all four doubles.
The first of those was a double off the wall by Bard.
Cole Dawson later doubled home two runs followed by a RBI double by
Sawyer Duddleston.
Logan Schwenke then had the final double of the inning as he doubled down the right field line. Also registering a RBI base hit was Ranallo as he had a two-run single.
Following the big inning,
Will Horton came on to pitch the ninth and worked a quick 1-2-3 frame with two strikeouts at the end to punctuate matters.
UP NEXT
The Wonder Boys will next be in action this coming Tuesday as they will travel to Jackson, Tenn. for a mid-week game at Union. First-pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m.
