HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The No. 2-seed Arkansas Tech baseball team picked up needed insurance in the bottom of the eighth and held off No. 3-seeded Harding in the ninth on Friday night for a 6-4 win.
The victory advanced the Wonder Boys to the finals of bracket two where they await the winner of an elimination game between Harding and No. 6-seed Northwestern Oklahoma. That game will take place on Saturday afternoon with a 1 p.m. start time and it will be the second game between Harding and NWOSU as the two met in the opening game on Thursday. Harding won that initial tournament meeting 4-2.
Whomever emerges as Tech's opponent will have a few hours before taking the field again for a scheduled 8 p.m. start.
In Friday night's game, the Wonder Boys were the first to strike with a single run in the bottom of the first inning. That run came as part of a two-out rally that saw
Tyler Sardelli double the other way down the left field line. He then scored in the next at-bat as
Kirby Jenkins singled up the middle.
That first run of the game that was scored by Tech could have just as easily been scored by Harding as they got a leadoff single to start the game, but that was quickly erased on a ground ball double play induced by Wonder Boys' starter
Daniel Hutchison.
Hutch would go on to pitch 7.0 innings en route to his ninth win of the season. In his time on the mound, Hutchison scattered three hits, allowed two runs, walked three, hit a batter and struck out four.
The first run Hutchison allowed came in the top of the fourth and tied the game at 1-all, but the Wonder Boys responded with two runs of their own in the bottom half. The first run scored by Tech in the fourth was a leadoff home run by Sardelli. Later in the inning
Tommy Caya doubled and then scored on a RBI triple by
Weston Johnston.
That 3-1 score held until the top of the seventh when Harding pushed across their second run of the game. Despite the traffic, Hutchison was able to get out of the inning with the lead intact.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Wonder Boys created some breathing room as they scored three runs on two hits. Both of the hits drove in a Wonder Boy as the first was a RBI single from Caya while the second was a two-run single through the left side by
Brendyn Bard.
Those three runs of insurance proved to be extremely important as Harding applied a ton of pressure, loading the bases with one out. With the potential tying run at the plate, the Bisons got the first run of the inning to score on a sac fly. The second came shortly thereafter on an error by Tech, making it a 6-4 game and the potential go-ahead run coming to the plate.
Fortunately, the error did not inflict any further damage as
Eric Woodley, who came on in the top of the eighth got a pop out to short to end the game and secure his second save in as many games and up his season total to 11.
