ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – SWOSU Baseball suffered a sweep at the hands of Henderson State this weekend in Arkansas, falling three times to the Reddies by a combined five runs.
The Bulldogs will close out the regular season next week with a home midweek matchup against East Central before traveling to face Northwestern next weekend. The Dawgs now sit 10th in the conference standings, two games behind Southeastern for the eighth and final postseason spot. The current GAC standings can be found
here.
Game One
HSU 4, SWOSU 2
Two walks and three Reddie hits in the fourth inning let the home team plate three runs, as they went on to beat the Dawgs in a low scoring series opener.
SWOSU scored solo runs in the top of the fourth on an RBI single from
Reece Burke, to lead briefly, and in the seventh after a throwing error allowed
Connor Jeffers to score after stealing second base. The Bulldogs managed just one hit from the sixth inning on, hindering their comeback efforts.
Josh Doelitsch was handed the loss on the mound in five innings of work, responsible for all runs allowed.
Tyler Fortin entered in the sixth and threw the rest of the way.
The offense was limited to four hits to HSU's eight.
Bodi Wallar doubled.
Campbell Sullivan walked twice and scored a run.
Game Two
HSU 8, SWOSU 7
The Dawgs led 3-0, 5-1, and 7-3 at different points in the seven-inning game, but got upended by a two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth which capped the game's scoring for good.
SWOSU entered the fifth leading 7-5 before the Reddies were able to plate three to grab and lead one last time.
Gage Gaunt and
Campbell Sullivan homered in the game. Gaunt also tripled in a 3-for-4 effort. The offense doubled their hit total from game one, but struck out a combined 10 times.
Drew Fifer had a no decision in his 3.2 inning outing.
Greg Ross suffered the loss.
Justin Schrader threw 1.1 innings of scoreless relief as SWOSU's final arm to see action.
Game Three
HSU 8, SWOSU 6
SWOSU again jumped out to a lead in Saturday's finale. In the third inning,
Hunter Smith hit his first home run of the season and
Ty Eastwood singled in another run to put SWOSU up 2-0.
A
Connor Jeffers RBI double in the fourth had the Dawgs leading 3-1.
HSU plated runs in every inning from the third to the sixth, capped off by a four-run sixth that gave them the lead for good. The Reddies hit two home runs in the sixth – a solo shot to lead the inning off which gave them a 4-3 lead, and a three-run shot later in the inning to push the margin out further.
Trailing 7-3 in the eighth,
Reece Burke answered HSU's three-run bomb with one of his own to give the Bulldogs life. The Reddies tacked on an insurance run the next half inning and SWOSU couldn't get anything else going on offense to close out the game.
Eastwood finished 3-for-5 to lead the lineup.
Gage Gaunt doubled.
Ayden Page was given the loss in 5.1 innings of action on the mound.
