RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – Less than 24 hours after putting the finishing touches on a series sweep on the road at Southeastern Oklahoma, the Arkansas Tech baseball team kept the momentum rolling on Tuesday afternoon as they blasted Union 19-8 in seven innings.
The 19-run outburst by the offense was a season-high and their 17 hits total tied their season-high as well. Just about half of that production for the Wonder Boys came in the first inning alone as Tech scored nine runs on eight hits.
In that inning, the Wonder Boys batted around plus four. Picking up RBIs in the inning were
Nick Jones,
Christian Olea,
Keaton Ranallo,
Cole Dawson,
Grant Jones and
Logan Schwenke. Both Ranallo and G. Jones would drive in multiple runs in the first inning as Ranallo hit a three-run home run while G. Jones at a two-run triple.
Ranallo would go on to finish the game a perfect 4-for-4 from the plate with seven RBIs and fell a double shy of the cycle. After his homer in the first, Ranallo tripled in the second, walked in the fourth, singled in the fifth and blasted another three-run bomb in the sixth.
The second of his two home runs provided enough of a cushion for the Wonder Boys to end the game early in seven innings with the 10-run rule as Union scored twice in the top of the seventh to pull within 11 runs.
The Wonder Boys will now set their sights on this coming weekend as they will be on the road at Harding for the final series of the regular season and it couldn't be a bigger one at that. The Wonder Boys are set to enter the weekend in first place in the GAC standings and one game ahead of Harding, who is tied for second at the moment with Arkansas-Monticello.
For all intents and purposes, the GAC Regular Season Championship will be decided in Searcy this weekend.
