Box Score ENID, Okla. – Justin Thomas recorded his record-setting 12th save of the season by pitching the final inning and two-thirds on Saturday en route to a 9-6 win for Southern Arkansas against Harding in the opening round of the 2013 Great American Conference Baseball Tournament.
The win puts the Muleriders in the winner's bracket and has them slated to take on the loser of the Arkansas Tech- Henderson State game which will be played Saturday evening at 7:00 p.m.
The No. 1-seed Muleriders (37-14) had to play from behind on several occasions throughout the game as the No. 6-seed Bisons (27-21) took leads in the first and third innings. In the first inning, the Bisons plated a pair of runs on three hits to take a 2-0 lead through the first half inning of play.
A four-run bottom of the first inning by the Muleriders staked SAU and starting pitcher
James Baune to a 4-2 lead.
The two-run lead would not last long, however, as the Bisons continued to pile up base hits off of Baune. After scoring a run in the second inning on three hits, the Bisons came back in the next inning and recaptured the lead, 5-4, when they were able to score twice on three more hits.
Despite the difficult first three innings in which he allowed five runs on nine hits (all singles), Baune would settle into his start as he kept the Bisons scoreless over the next four innings to work himself into the eighth inning.
With Baune settling in, the Muleriders offense would begin to work back into the game. Trailing by a run in the bottom of the fourth inning,
Tyler Cameron hammered a solo homerun out to left field to knot the game up at five-all.
Two innings later, Cameron drove in the go-ahead run in the sixth inning when he placed a single up the middle to score
David Harris, who led off the inning with a hit-by-pitch. Now leading by a score of 6-5, the Muleriders plated three runs of insurance in the seventh inning to take a 9-5 lead.
In that three-run seventh, the Muleriders got RBIs from
Chris Quinn and
Brady Capshaw. In between the two RBI-hits for the Muleriders,
Jason Dahl scored on a passed ball.
Baune would return to the mound in the eighth inning, but he would only retire one batter in the frame as Thomas entered the game with runners on second and third and one out. Thomas would induce a sacrifice fly on the first man he faced, but the left-hander then got a groundout to end the inning.
In the ninth, Thomas would allow a one-out walk, but retired the next two batters to end the game and secure his 12th save of the season.
The Muleriders next play at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday and will take on the loser of the Arkansas Tech-Henderson State game which is set to be played at 7:00 p.m.
