ALVA, Okla. – A victory in the longest game in Great American Conference history helped the Bulldog Baseball team secure a berth in the 2019 GAC Tournament as SWOSU sweep a doubleheader at Northwestern Oklahoma State on Saturday.
 
The Bulldogs conclude GAC play with a record of 20-13 which is good for fourth in the final conference standings. SWOSU will be the No. 4 seed in the 2019 GAC Tournament, which begin next Saturday at David Allen Memorial Ballpark in Enid. Before entering the postseason, however, the Dawgs will play one final non-conference game on Tuesday in Weatherford against Central Oklahoma.
 
SWOSU 6, Northwestern Okla. 5 (16 inn.)
 
A sacrifice fly off the bat of Kannon McCune scored Chase Duncan in the top of the 16th inning and proved to be the deciding run in the longest game in GAC history. The game went to extras tied at 2-2 after SWOSU got RBI singles from Alex Pimentel in the first and fourth innings while Northwestern answered with single runs in the second and sixth frames.
 
After each team went scoreless in the 10th, the Bulldogs seized control in the top of the 11th inning with three runs, including a bases-loaded walk from Rafael Villela and another RBI single by Pimentel which scored Brady Burtner. Chase Duncan was then hit by a pitch with the bases still loaded, giving the Dawgs a 5-2 advantage heading to the bottom of the 11th.
 
The Bulldogs recorded the first two outs in the 11th in relatively short order, but Northwestern got a two-run single to get within one before pushing the game-tying run across on an error by the Bulldogs. The teams would play the next four innings scoreless and head to the 16th still knotted at 5-5.
 
Duncan was again hit by a pitch to lead off the 16th and the Dawgs loaded the bases with singles from Tanner Long and Sawyer Toole. That set the stage for Kannon McCune, who hit a fly ball deep enough into right field to score Duncan from third. That would be enough of a cushion for Chase Hamilton (1-0), who pitched the final four innings to get the win and sat the Rangers down in order in the bottom half of the inning.
 
Pimentel led the Bulldogs by going 4-for-8 at the plate with three RBI while Toole was 3-for-8 and Bedard and Jacob Grady each had two hits apiece.
 
SWOSU 6, Northwestern Okla. 5
 
The series finale may have ended by the same score, but the game followed a much different script as the Bulldogs fell behind 4-1 after the Rangers scored four runs in the bottom of the third innings. Rafael Villela hit a leadoff home run in the fourth, jump starting the SWOSU offense which would go on to tie the game with a two-run single from Tanner Long later in the inning.
 
Northwestern scored to regain the lead in the bottom of the fourth, but SWOSU evened the score as Sawyer Toole scored on a passed ball in the sixth before taking the lead on an RBI double from Chris Cloud in the top of the seventh. Dakota Jones (2-1) sat the Rangers down in order in the seventh to wrap up the victory and earn the win after pitching the final 4.0 innings for the Dawgs.