WEATHERFORD – The Zack Saunders era and SWOSU baseball season came to an end on Sunday following an 8-6 loss at the hands of rival Northwestern Oklahoma State.
 
SWOSU ends the year 25-24 and 14-19 in conference. The Bulldogs held a 19-11 record at the SWOSU Athletic Complex in 2024.
 
Jackson Syring opened the game with a two-run shot to put SWOSU up 2-0 in the first inning. This would be a short-lived lead though when Northwestern came back in the top of the second with two home runs of their own and scored three.
 
SWOSU played from behind the rest of the way and never gained back the lead. Northwestern extended it to 4-2 off a sacrifice fly in the fourth. The two teams then began to trade runs. Two from SWOSU tied the game in the fifth. Another two-run bomb from the Rangers broke the tie before the Bulldogs knotted things up at six all in the seventh.
 
Two base hits in the top of the eighth from the visitors drove in the winning runs. SWOSU had two frames to respond again, but only managed one base runner over the eighth and ninth innings.
 
Marco Barrera, Geoff Marlow, and Joseph Frisby all had multi-hit games in their last outings in a Bulldog uniform. Jackson Syring led SWOSU with four RBIs.

Ernesto Hidrogo (L, 3-3) got the loss after throwing 2.0 innings. He relieved starter Grant Ewy who struck out five in his 5.2 innings. 
 
SWOSU graduates 11 seniors and loses head coach Zack Saunders, who is stepping down from the helm after 13 years.