WEATHERFORD, Okla. – SWOSU Baseball claimed a pair of hard-fought, close victories with league-leading Arkansas Tech on Saturday in Weatherford, defeating the Wonder Boys 8-6 in the opener before a low-scoring 1-0 win in the night cap at the Athletic Complex.
SWOSU clinches the series and improves to 17-10 (14-9 GAC) on the year and they'll go for the sweep on Sunday at noon in Weatherford.
Game 1: SWOSU 8, Arkansas Tech 6
The Bulldogs scored six runs in the middle innings and held Arkansas Tech scoreless for the final six to come-from-behind and win the opener on Saturday. SWOSU scored twice in the first inning to go on top 2-1 before pitching and defensive woes plagued the Dawgs in the third, which ended with ATU scoring five runs on five hits and taking advantage of two errors to build a 6-2 lead.
SWOSU cut into their deficit in the fourth inning with three runs on RBI hits from
Taylan Mullins-Ohm and
Drew White along with a sacrifice fly off the bat of
Miguel Soto which scored Mullins-Ohm. After getting within one in the fourth, the Dawgs took the lead for good on a Soto two-run double in the sixth before adding an RBI single from
Ryan Dos Santos to make it 8-6.
The Bulldogs finished with 12 hits in the win, getting three apiece from
Alex Bedard and Dos Santos while Soto and White had two apiece, with Soto totaling a team-high four RBI.
Vance Ferraro allowed four earned runs on eight hits while striking out four over the first 4.0 innings before giving way to
Dakota Jones (3-0), who allowed just one hit in 2.2 innings to earn the win.
Ryan Hildner (2) got the save after also allowing just one hit in the final 2.1 innings of action.
Game 2: SWOSU 1, Arkansas Tech 0
An RBI single from
Alex Bedard in the bottom of the fifth inning accounted for the lone run in the second game as SWOSU clinched the series with a victory. Each team had six hits in the game – with one extra-base hit – but it was the opportunistic Bulldogs who made the most of theirs as
Keyshaun Smith scored only run following a leadoff double in the fifth.
Drew White went 2-for-3 with a second two-hit game of the day while Bedard, Baxley, Dos Santos and Smith each added one hit for the Dawgs.
Nate Postlethwait (6-1) put forth another strong performance from the mound, tossing a complete game with five strikeouts while allowing six hits and two walks. He needed just 91 pitches for the 7.0 inning effort, which marked his first complete game of the season.
