EDMOND, Okla. – The Arkansas Tech baseball team remained on the road after a weekend at UAM for their mid-week game at Central Oklahoma on Tuesday afternoon. In the game, the Wonder Boys would come out on the short side of a high-scoring affair, 14-12.
The eventual offensive slugfest actually started out as a bit of a pitcher's duel as it was a 1-0 game in favor of UCO through three innings of play. The fireworks got started in earnest in the fourth inning as Tech scored seven runs on five hits in the frame.
That inning started with the first two batters reaching base via a hit-by-pitch and a walk. The first run scored in the next at-bat as
Kirby Jenkins singled up the middle to score
Tyler Sardelli, who had led off with a HBP. Two batters later,
Joe Kinneberg singled home
Christian Olea on an infield single to third.
After a walk was issued to
Grant Jones, the next three hitters collected RBIs for Tech as
Kolby Webb and
Luke Ray had run-scoring singles while Duddleston had a sac fly RBI. After the Duddleston sac fly, Webb scored the sixth run of the inning on a balk. That was followed by a RBI single by Sardelli for the seventh and final run of the frame.
UCO would get within a pair of runs in the fifth as they scored four runs in the inning. The Wonder Boys would score two runs of their own in the sixth to push their lead back out to four runs, 9-5. After the Bronchos scored a run in the seventh, Tech plated three runs in the top of the eighth to take a 12-6 lead.
Sardelli and Kinneberg would have RBIs in that inning with Sardelli having one on a single though the left side and Kinneberg having two on a single up the middle.
Unfortunately, UCO was able to explode offensively in their half of the inning and scored eight runs to flip their deficit into a two-run lead. Tech would get their leadoff batter on in the top of the ninth but were turned away quietly following a double play and a fly out.
The Wonder Boys will now prepare for a home series this weekend against Southeastern Oklahoma. The series is slated to be played Friday and Saturday. Game one will take place at 6 p.m. on Friday night.
