BETHANY, Okla. – The Southern Arkansas baseball team opened up Great American Conference play in a big way as they took both ends of Friday afternoon's doubleheader on the road against Southern Nazarene by scores of 11-0 and 12-5.
All told, the Muleriders' (10-5, 2-0 GAC) offense would crank out 26 hits across the two games with exactly half of those going for extra bases as seven went for doubles and six left the yard.
Three of the seven doubles came off the bat of senior third baseman,
Jon Phillips, as he hit one in the opener and added two more in the second game. Also picking up doubles for SAU were
Billy Germaine,
Chris Quinn,
Trevor Rucker and
Trevor Ward as each had one two-bagger.
In the homerun department, five Muleriders combined for the six longballs on the day. Germaine, the leading homerun hitter for SAU entering play on Friday, launched a pair in the opening game. Also leaving the park in the first game were
Chase Harvey (his first career homerun), Quinn, and Rucker.
William Townsend connected on his second homerun of the year in game two to account for SAU's sixth homer of the day.
While the offense was firing on all cylinders on Friday, the Muleriders also got great pitching as they needed just three arms to get through the twin-bill.
Timothy Buchanan started the opener ended up tossing a complete-game shutout as he scattered eight hits, walked none, and struck out five.
The shutout by Buchanan was the first for the Muleriders this season.
In game two,
Preston Gray took to the mound and allowed just one run over the first four innings, but an eventual four-run fifth by the Crimson Storm (3-6, 2-3 GAC) chased Gray from the start. Coming on in relief of Gray was
Hunter Mayo and Mayo eventually got out of the fifth inning with the lead still intact, keeping Gray in line for the win. In the sixth and seventh innings, Mayo would hold the Crimson Storm hitless as he brought the game to its end.
The Muleriders will now go for the series sweep over Southern Nazarene on Saturday afternoon. First-pitch is scheduled for noon.