ALVA, Okla. – The SWOSU Baseball team mixed in a little spring cleaning with their final Great American Conference series as they busted out the brooms on Saturday after completing a three-game sweep of the rival Rangers of Northwestern Oklahoma State. SWOSU won Saturday's games by an 11-10 count in 10 innings before a 7-3 victory in the series finale.
SWOSU 11, Northwestern 10 (10 inn.)Box Score SWOSU built a 6-0 lead in the third inning but had to come-from-behind with runs in the ninth and tenth innings to win the Saturday opener.
Mason Marshall went yard again, slugging a three-run shot in the six-run third inning, while
CJ Faddis was 3-for-5, including the game-tying hit in the top of the ninth inning.
Dalton Daniels led off the tenth with a single and advanced to third on an error, putting him in position to score the go-ahead run on an RBI single from
Greg Bruno.
The Bulldog bats were hot again as they totaled 17 hits for the second straight game and each player in the starting lineup had at least one hit in the game. Daniels finished 3-for-5 with two runs scored while
Trent Troxell went 2-for-4 with three runs scored.
Austin Hilton started and lasted 6.0 runs before being relieved after allowing eight hits and six runs.
Dillon Freie and
Brett McNaughton combined to throw the final three innings, with McNaughton getting his first victory of the year.
Ethan Davis, SWOSU's starter on Friday evening, earned his second save of the season after pitching a perfect tenth inning.
SWOSU 7, Northwestern 3Box Score The Bulldogs scored four runs in the second and three in the fourth, giving them more than enough cushion to endure a three-run fifth by the Rangers as they completed their first three-game league sweep this season.
Haden Houska had two RBI doubles – a two-run hit in the second and a shot to center in the fourth – to lead the Bulldogs, who had 10 hits in the seven-inning contest. Houska,
Bryan Holt and Faddis each had multi-hit games while Daniels scored another pair of runs in the game.
The offensive output was plenty for
Taylor Weifenbach, who threw a complete game in just his second start of the season. He improves to 4-1 on the year after allowing seven hits and three runs while striking out seven Rangers, an average of one per inning.
"The team played really well all weekend with a lot of guys contributing," SWOSU Coach
Zack Saunders said after the sweep. "It was a good way to cap off the weekend by sweeping a rivalry series and we were very honored and humbled to be asked to attend the dedication in between games for Northwestern's Britten Shuck, who tragically passed away earlier this season."
The rivalry sweep improves the Bulldogs to 19-27 on the year and provides an opportunity to reach the 20-win plateau on Tuesday when they conclude the 2015 season at Oklahoma Christian.
