SEARCY, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech baseball team dropped both ends of the doubleheader at Harding on Friday afternoon, losing the opener 11-8 and the second game 5-2.
GAME ONE
In the opener, Harding jumped out to the early lead with three runs in the bottom of the second, but the Wonder Boys responded over the next two innings and took a 6-3 lead with a single run in the third and five in the fourth.
The run in the third scored on a fielder's choice RBI off the bat of
Markos Cabranes. In the fourth, the Wonder Boys started the inning with four-straight singles. The first came from
Nick Jones, while
Christian Olea and
Keaton Ranallo followed suit after to load the bases with no outs.
Brendyn Bard then drove in the first run of the inning on a single to the pitcher.
Two batters later,
Cole Dawson came up with a double the other way down the right field line to score Olea and Ranallo. Two batters after that, two more runs scored on two-RBI single to centerfield by
Grant Jones.
The Bisons answered back in their half of the fourth with one run to make it a 6-4 game. An inning later Harding struck for their big inning, plating four to grab an 8-6 lead.
Fortunately, that deficit did not last long for the Wonder Boys as they scored twice in the top of the sixth to tie the game up at eight-all. The big hit that inning was a two-run single through the right side by Olea.
The Bisons would regain the lead with a run in the seventh and added two more in the eighth to bring the score to its eventual final of 11-8.
GAME TWO
In the second game, the Bisons broke through for four runs in the bottom of the second to take an early lead. That score, however, held until the bottom of the sixth when Harding scored an insurance run.
After being held scoreless through the first six innings, the Wonder Boys put together a rally in their last at-bats in the top of the seventh and scored twice to bring the score to its final of 5-2.
Christian Olea started the inning with a walk and was moved to third on a double by
Keaton Ranallo. Olea then scored on a wild pitch during the next at-bat while Ranallo scored soon thereafter on a sacrifice fly by
Brendyn Bard.
UP NEXT
The Wonder Boys will look to salvage a game in the series on Saturday and pull into a tie with Harding in the conference standings, hopefully resulting in a share of the GAC Regular Season Championship.
