Box Score
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BETHANY, Okla. – An RBI single by
Jaden Chappell provided to be the deciding run as the Bulldog baseball team held of Southern Nazarene 7-6 in the first game of a three-game Great American Conference series on Friday.
Jiro Morales scored
Dalton Daniels with an RBI single in the first inning, giving SWOSU the game's first run and a lead they would carry until the fifth inning. SNU tied the game up in the fifth, but the Bulldogs came right back with two runs in the sixth after loading the bases.
The Crimson Storm took their first lead in the bottom of the inning, scoring three runs on three hits off of SWOSU's starter
Jonathan Johnson. The back-and-forth battle quickly turned right back in favor of the Bulldogs after Morales picked up another RBI on a sac fly that scored
Kale Thaxton and
Zack Mang tripled to score
Mitchell Brittain before scoring himself on a single by Chappell.
SWOSU had a 6-4 lead at that point, but SNU got one run in both the seventh and eighth innings to pull into a tie at 6-6 as the game entered the final inning. Brittain was plunked to lead off the ninth and got to second after Mang laid down a sacrifice bunt. At that point,
Adam Iago came in as a pinch runner and promptly advanced to third following a balk. Chappell came through in the clutch with a single up the middle, plating Iago and scoring the go-ahead run.
Travis Leverett walked the leadoff runner in the ninth and
Tyler Hampton allowed a single to the first batter he faced before getting a fly out that left runners at first and third with one out. Hampton was then able to force a ground ball to
Dietrick Turney at second who started a 4-6-3 double play to end the game.
Leverett picked up the win after tossing one inning in relief of Johnson, who scattered nine hits and four earned runs while striking out nine batters in 7.0 innings. Leverett moves to 3-0 on the year after his one inning, which included two hits and one earned run and Hampton picked up his first save of the year after shutting the door on the Crimson Storm rally.
The win improves SWOSU to 5-7 on the year and 3-4 in conference play heading into Saturday's noon doubleheader against SNU that will complete the series.
