Box Score

ENID, Okla. – Facing elimination in the 2013 Great American Conference Baseball Tournament, senior right-hander Jon Mark Abbey threw a five-hit shutout against Henderson State to keep the top-seeded Southern Arkansas baseball team alive in the tournament. Abbey's shutout is the second shutout in the history of the GAC Tournament.
 
The Muleriders (38-15) will now take on Arkansas-Monticello at 7:00 p.m. at the David Allen Memorial Ballpark in Enid, Okla. The game against UAM will still be an elimination game for the Muleriders, but a win against the Boll Weevils puts SAU in the championship game on Tuesday.
 
In the game against Henderson, Abbey (8-3) was sharp from the beginning as he did not allow his first hit of the game until the third inning when Taylor Coleman notched a two-out single. Abbey would also not allow more than one base runner in an inning until the seventh when the Reddies (24-27) collected consecutive two-out hits.
 
In support of Abbey, the Muleriders scored single runs in the first and third innings to give him an initial lead to work with. In the top of the seventh inning, the Muleriders were able to break the game open as they scored three runs on a pair of hits.
 
In that frame, the Muleriders were able to chase the Reddies' starter Dustin Hudson and also get to their All-GAC First-Team reliever Jordan Wright. All three runs in the inning were charged to Wright as Hudson retired the only man he faced in the seventh. The big hit in the frame for the Muleriders was a two-run double by Ryan Dardenne that scored David Harris and Chris Quinn.
 
Two innings later, in the top of the ninth, the Muleriders picked up some insurance as they got another two-RBI double, this time off the bat of Brady Capshaw.
 
The bottom of the ninth would not be difficult for Abbey as he retired the Reddies in order to secure the shutout.