RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech baseball team beat former conference rival Delta State 9-5 on Tuesday night out at Baswell Field. The win came in the first of what will be a two-game mid-week series between Tech and Delta State.
In Tuesday's game, the Statesmen jumped out to a 3-0 lead through three and a half innings of play with single runs in the first, third and fourth innings. Two of those three early runs for Delta State were unearned.
The Wonder Boys would get things going offensively in the bottom of the fourth as they scored three runs on four hits to tie the game at three-all. In that inning,
Keaton Ranallo led off with a single to right-centerfield and was quickly moved to third on a wall-banging double by
Logan Schwenke. With two runners in scoring position,
Christian Olea came through with a clutch single up the middle to score both Ranallo and Schwenke.
During the next at-bat, Olea made his way to third on a passed ball and a wild pitch. With Olea on third,
Brendyn Bard traded places as he laced triple down the left field line.
An inning later, the Wonder Boys took the lead with a pair of runs. The first run of that inning was
Nick Jones scoring on a RBI double off the bat of Schwenke. In the next at-bat, Olea collected his third RBI with a groundout to shortstop.
The offensive momentum continued in the sixth for the Wonder Boys as they added three runs of insurance on a three-run home run off the bat of Jones.
Delta State made one last rally in the top of the eighth with a pair of runs, but the Wonder Boys responded with one of their own in the bottom of the frame as
Grant Jones scored on a wild pitch.
Back to a comfortable four-run lead, the Wonder Boys sent
Will Horton back out to the mound for the top of the ninth in search of his second save of the season as he came on in relief to close out the eighth after Delta State cut the Tech lead to three.
Horton would go on to secure the save without allowing a run and did so in support of
Evan Gaunt, who earned the win out of the bullpen for Tech. Gaunt came on to start the fifth inning and struck out four in his 3.2 innings of work.
The Wonder Boys and Statesmen will close their two-game mid-week series on Wednesday with a single game starting at 1 p.m.
