JACKSON, Tenn. – The Arkansas Tech baseball team won its 20
th game of the season on Tuesday afternoon, doing so by beating Union University 11-7 on the road in a mid-week in-region game.
Against Union, the Wonder Boys found themselves trailing 4-0 through two innings of play as the Bulldogs scored four runs on four hits while also benefitting from a Tech error in the bottom of the second.
The Wonder Boys would get all of those runs back plus one in the next half inning as they scored five runs on five hits to take a 5-4 lead. That inning was started by a single through the right side off the bat of
Grant Jones. After a steal of second,
Cole Dawson then drew a walk to bring the lineup back around to the top. A productive groundball moved both Jones and Dawson up 90 feet.
The first run then came home on a RBI single through the right side by
Nick Jones.
Logan Schwenke then tripled to right-centerfield to score Dawson and N. Jones. Not long after that, Schwenke scored on a RBI goundout by
Keaton Ranallo, tying the score at four-all.
Christian Olea then gave the Wonder Boys the lead in the ensuing at-bat with a solo home run out to left field.
An inning later, Schwenke collected his third RBI of the game as he hit a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Dawson, who previously singled in the inning.
Union would tie the score at six-all in the bottom half of the fourth thanks to a two-out, two-run home run.
The score would not remain tied for long, however, as the Wonder Boys struck for five more runs in the top of the fifth, to give them an 11-6 lead.
Brendyn Bard started the offense in the fifth with a leadoff double down the left field line.
Shane Poe then singled to short allowing Bard to take third. Poe then stole second which gave way to a single to short by G. Jones to load the bases with no outs.
Dawson then drew a walk to force in a run.
Markos Cabranes and N. Jones followed with sacrifice flies to center for the next two runs for the Wonder Boys. The final two runs in the frame scored on a RBI triple by Schwenke and a RBI single by Ranallo.
The Wonder Boys would not score the rest of the game while Union pushed across a run in the bottom of the seventh to bring the score to its final of 11-7.
In a mid-week game, the Wonder Boys used seven different pitchers to get through the nine innings.
Mason Willis collected the win to move to 2-1 after he was first in relief. Willis would work 2.1 innings, allowing three hits and two runs while striking out three.
The Wonder Boys will now return home for a three-game conference series with Arkansas-Monticello. The series is scheduled to start on Friday night with a single-game slated to start at 6 p.m.
