PITTSBURG, Kan. – Facing elimination after an opening round loss at the NCAA Central Region Tournament on Thursday, the No. 8-seed Arkansas Tech baseball team staved off elimination with an impressive 12-5 win over No. 4-seed Northwest Missouri on Friday.
With the win, the Wonder Boys have earned the chance to play a second elimination game on Saturday afternoon. Their opponent will be the losing team between No. 1-seed Pittsburg State and No. 5-seed Augustana. Those two are playing one another at the time of this writing.
Tech's game with whomever will start at 1 p.m. on Saturday. With a win in that game, the Wonder Boys would turn around and play the winner of the current Pitt State-Augie game shortly after on Saturday.
In their game against Northwest Missouri, the Wonder Boys jumped out on top early with three runs in the bottom of the first. The initial run was a solo home run to the opposite field gap off the bat of
Kirby Jenkins. The second and third runs scored two batters later on a two-run home run by
Tommy Caya.
That score held until the bottom of the fourth when Tech scored to take a 4-0 lead on a RBI double from
Luke Caussey. Northwest Missouri scored their first runs of the game in the top of the fifth on a two-run home run, making it a 4-2 game.
The Wonder Boys answered back and then some in the bottom of the inning and struck for six runs on four hits to pull away and take a 10-4 lead. That inning got going with one out as Jenkins hit his second home run of the game, this time hammering a ball out to left-centerfield.
Tyler Sardelli then walked and was moved to third on a double by Caya.
Caya and Sardelli then moved up 90 feet on a wild pitch, scoring Sardelli. After the second out was recorded, Caya scored on a wild pitch. Caussey then followed with a single up the middle while
Weston Johnston reached base on a hit-by-pitch.
The big blow in the inning then came as
Brendyn Bard hit a three-run home run out to left field. Northwest Missouri answered with a leadoff homerun in the top of the sixth.
The Wonder Boys added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth to bring their total to 12.
Derek Rockett drew a leadoff walk and then scored on a RBI triple by Jenkins. He then scored on a RBI double by Sardelli.
Northwest would score a single run in the seventh and ninth to bring their total to dive.
Daniel Hutchison was the starting pitcher for the Wonder Boys and pitched into the seventh inning. In his 6.1 innings, Hutchison would scatter eight hits, allow four runs, four walks and collected four strikeouts as he earned his 11
th win of the season, moving him to second place for a single-season.
Ashton Greenlee pitched 1.2 innings of relief and did not allow a hit or a run.
Austin Moccardini handled the ninth and finished off the game.
