BETHANY, Okla. – The Southern Arkansas Mulerider baseball team picked up their fifth win in a row on Saturday afternoon as they collected 22 hits resulting in a 17-1 run-rule victory over Southern Nazarene to earn the Great American Conference road series sweep.
 
SAU starter Landon Simpson allowed only three hits, while striking out four in five innings of work to pick up his second win of the season. The Muleriders received two solid innings from their bullpen as Janson Carr and Jared Fielden each worked a scoreless frame in the win.
 
The Muleriders picked up where they left off in their 12-5 game two win yesterday, by plating five runs in the first inning on six hits and an error. Simpson was threatened in the bottom half of the frame but fanned the inning's fifth batter to strand runners at second and third.
 
The lone Crimson Storm run would come in the home-half of the second and after a scoreless third inning for both sides, the Muleriders went back to work offensively.
 
Chase Harvey led-off the fourth inning with a single and Jon Phillips followed suit to put runners at first and second. Billy Germaine singled home Harvey to push the SAU lead to 6-1. Korey Keith joined in on the base hit action by singling to load the bases. A fielder's choice from the bat of Trevor Rucker scored Phillips and the sophomore would steal second and advance to third on a throwing error that scored Germaine to give the Muleriders an 8-1 lead. Trevor Ward ended the run scoring fourth inning with a sacrifice fly that scored Rucker.
 
Simpson retired the side on nine pitches in the bottom of the fourth and needed only six pitches in the fifth inning to end his quality outing on the mound.
 
Leading 9-1 into the sixth inning, SAU erupted for eight runs to close the door on the Crimson Storm. A Trevor Ward RBI double and a run-scoring infield single from Chris Quinn gave SAU a 10-run advantage. Two more runs crossed home on a two-RBI single by Keaton Miller and Harvey plated two more runs with a triple. Harvey would score on a single by Phillips and the senior would score on a bases loaded single by Rucker.
 
Carr worked around runners at the corners in the sixth and Fielden stranded one runner in the seventh as the Muleriders run-ruled the Crimson Storm to pick up the series sweep.
 
Germaine went 5-for-5 with three runs and two RBIs. Harvey, Phillips, Keith, Rucker and Quinn all registered three hits. Rucker collected a game-high three RBIs, while six other Muleriders knocked in a pair of runs each.
 
Southern Arkansas returns to the diamond for a GAC home-opening series against Southwestern Oklahoma. First pitch on Friday, February 27 is scheduled for 6 p.m. The series will conclude on Saturday, February 28, with a doubleheader beginning at noon.