WEATHERFORD, Okla. – SWOSU Baseball went .500 on the day, beating East Central 3-1 in the day's first game before falling in the nightcap 8-3. After previously defeating ECU in yesterday's series opener, SWOSU was able to edge out the Tigers and win the series 2-1, making it their second-consecutive Great American Conference series victory.
The Dawgs (8-9, 4-5 GAC) will be on the road all next week, playing a midweek contest in Chickasha against USAO before traveling to Durant to face off against Southeastern in another GAC weekend series.
Game One
Box Score (html)
SWOSU 3, East Central 1
The opening game of the day was a very clean played contest as both starting pitchers gave their teams solid outings on the mound.
Gunnar Cook went deep into the game, coming out with two outs in the eighth inning after getting into trouble in the inning and allowing the first and only Tiger run of the first game to score.
Vincent Berrones came out of the bullpen for a lefty-lefty matchup and got the better of his opposition, striking out his East Central hitter and ending the threat and preserving SWOSU's 3-1 lead.
Things got dicey again in the ninth inning when
Stephen Pagendarm walked three in the ninth to load up the bases and getting two outs in the process.
Quintin Dougherty came in to get the one pitch, one out save and allow the Dawgs to take the first game and clinch the series victory.
Offensively, the Bulldogs scored one run in each of the game's first three innings that was enough to earn the win.
Jason Nichols singled in the game's first run in the first inning with a line drive up the middle while the following two innings SWOSU relied on sacrifice flies to score their other two runs.
On the bump, Cook's final line was 7.2 innings pitched with nine strikeouts and four walks. He earned his second-straight decision to move to 2-1 on the season for SWOSU. Dougherty also earned his third save of the season.
Game Two
Box Score (html)
East Central 8, SWOSU 3
Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the fifth,
Daniel Richardson knocked in a two-run double down the left field line that scored the game-tying and go-ahead runs. In a tight game, it looked like it might be enough but ECU responded in the next half inning in a huge way by scoring six runs on four hits in the inning and breaking the game open at 8-3 where it would remain the rest of the way.
Devin Ring started on the mound but only made it 3.2 innings before passing it off to the next Dawg pitcher,
Skyler Martin who was charged with the loss after conceding two runs and the lead in his 1.2 innings of work. Dougherty made another appearance in the sixth inning, but allowed all of his inherited runners to score (Martin's responsibility) plus four of his own in the tough sixth inning for SWOSU.
Ruben Rodriguez and Richardson both produced multiple hits in game two, but accounted for four of the six total hits the Bulldogs tallied.
