RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – Baseball came up winless on Friday in day one of the weekend conference series against Arkansas Tech, leaving 12 base runners stranded in the opener and falling in an extra inning pitcher's duel in the nightcap.
The series will conclude tomorrow at noon for the third and final game. SWOSU sits just outside of the current top-8 conference rankings and will need to find their way inside of the list to qualify for the postseason tournament. They can help their cause with a win tomorrow.
Senior
Zach Baxley also returned to the lineup Friday after missing 20 games due to injury. In his return, he batted 4-8 with a home run.
GAME ONE – ATU 9, SWOSU 3
Tech got to starting pitcher
Dakota Jones early to start the day off and had SWOSU playing from behind the rest of the way. Back-to-back home runs made the score 4-0 after one inning and Jones did not return for the second.
He was relieved by
Rafael Perez-Guzman who threw the next 6.0 innings. Perez-Guzman allowed four runs in his outing, though none were earned after two costly errors in the second and third innings caused the damage.
Baxley got the Dawgs on the board in the fifth with a solo home run to center field to make the score 5-1, but Tech immediately pushed the margin back to 8-1 with three of their own in the home half.
RBIs from
Enzo Bonventre and
Ramon Vingochea chipped into the lead in the fifth, but that would cap off SWOSU's scoring for the game.
Three errors and 12 stranded base runners were the story of game one.
Miguel Soto led the offense with a 4-5 performance at the dish.
Matt Hopkins pitched an inning in the eighth.
GAME TWO – ATU 2, SWOSU 1 (8 inn.)
The second game was a pitching duel. Starting pitcher
Nate Postlethwait threw the entire way, picking up the tough loss after Arkansas Tech delivered the walk-off base knock in the eighth to end the night.
Bonventre put the Dawgs ahead 1-0 early with an RBI single in the first. Tech answered in the fourth with an RBI single of their own. The Wonder Boys could have gotten more that inning but with runners on first and second with one out, Postlethwait induced a ground ball double play to get out of it.
Offense was at a premium the rest of the way. In the seventh, SWOSU sacrifice bunted
Alex Rice to second base after he led off the inning with a single. He would not score though, after two-straight ground balls ended the inning.
The bottom of the eighth's sequence was as follows: single-sac bunt-intentional walk-walk-strikeout-RBI single to end it. With two outs and the bases loaded, Tech got the job done with a single up the middle.
Postlethwait finished with seven strikeouts and four walks in 7.2 innings of work. Baxley led the offense with a 3-4 showing.
