ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech softball team endured over a second game's worth of action in their series-opener at Ouachita Baptist on Friday and emerged victorious, 8-4, in 15 innings.
The 15-inning game played on Friday was the second-longest in program history for the Golden Suns. The record is 18.1 innings, done so in a March 12 game back in 2017 against Henderson State. It is also the Golden Suns' third extra-innings game of the season, with all three coming in consecutive weekends. Tech is 3-0 in such games.
On Friday, the Golden Suns got out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning thanks to a two-run double to left-center from
Sharlee Jackson. Her double scored pinch-runner
Brinly Bancroft, who was on for
Aly White who walked with one out, and
Abby Lowery who singled two at-bats earlier.
That 2-0 score held until the bottom of the sixth inning when Ouachita hit a pair of solo home runs to tie the score at 2-all.
The Golden Suns would crack the scoreboard again in the top of the seventh as a leadoff double from Lowery came home on a sacrifice fly from Jackson. Ouachita managed to push across the tying run in their half of the seventh to send the game to extra innings.
That tying run was scored off of
Emily Richarde, who came on in relief of White to start the bottom of the seventh, looking to close out the win. Richarde would go on to pitch the next 6.0 innings herself as she totaled 7.0 in relief. She would allow just one more run in that time as the Tigers matched Tech's run in the 13
th inning to keep the game tied.
In the top of the 15
th, the Golden Suns finally broke things open and scored four runs on five hits to take an 8-4 lead.
Anna Winkfield led the inning off with a double to right.
Miya Curry then singled in front of the plate, advancing Winkfield to third. After a steal of second by Curry,
Aubree Jones drove both in on a RBI single up the middle. Later in the frame, the Golden Suns added two more runs of insurance as Jones scored on a fielder's choice throwing error during the
Breanna Phillips at-bat and then
Caroline Wilhelm scoring on a bunt single from
Abby Lowery.
In the bottom of the 15
th, Ouachita got a two-out walk but were retired without any runs scoring as
Ainslee Moore put the finishing touches on the long-awaited victory.
The Golden Suns and Tigers will play a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon starting at 1 p.m. to conclude their series.
