RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech baseball team made its long-awaited home debut on Sunday and played a doubleheader against Southwestern Oklahoma. The Wonder Boys would drop the first game 11-2, but bounced back for a 5-2 win in the second game to earn the split.
GAME ONE
SWOSU took an early lead and were in control throughout the entire game. The Bulldogs got on the board first with three runs in the top of the first inning. In the fourth, they added a pair of runs to go up 5-0.
Consecutive innings of three runs scoring in the sixth and seventh gave the Bulldogs an 11-0 lead and put the game on the brink of an early end in seven innings, but the Wonder Boys scored twice in their half of the seventh to extend the game.
The first run of the inning was a two-out home run off the bat of
Tommy Caya. Following that, the Wonder Boys loaded the bases thanks to walks to
Braden Watkins and
Tyler Sardelli as well as a hit-by-pitch to
Cole Dawson. With the bases loaded,
Kirby Jenkins was hit-by-a-pitch as well to force home Watkins for the second run of the inning.
Neither team scored over the final two innings as game one ended 11-2 in favor of SWOSU.
GAME TWO
In the second game, SWOSU was once again able to get the first lead, this time scoring a single run in the top of the second inning. The Wonder Boys matched that run in the bottom of the third on a sacrifice fly off the bat of
Tyler Sardelli.
An inning later, the Wonder Boys grabbed their first lead of the day with a RBI single up the middle by
Weston Johnston. In the fifth, Tech added a run on aggressive base running as
Zack Burrow scored on a wild pitch.
SWOSU scored another single run in the sixth to apply pressure and make it a one run-game. The run would score with one out and later in the inning, the Bulldogs had loaded the bases. The Bulldogs would end up leaving the bases loaded as
Ashton Greenlee was able to minimize the damage to the one run.
In the bottom of the inning, the Wonder Boys pushed across two runs of insurance.
Cole Dawson and Sardelli drove in the runs on singles up the middle.
Eric Woodley came on in the top of the seventh and closed out the game, allowing just one hit and collecting a strikeout.
UP NEXT
The Wonder Boys and Bulldogs will vie for the coveted series victory on Monday afternoon as the rubber game of the series is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. from Baswell Field.
