GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – In their final game of the inaugural QuikTrip DII Classic, the #6 Southern Arkansas Mulerider baseball team exploded for 11 runs in a 7-inning run-rule over MIAA-member Pittsburg State on Sunday afternoon in Grand Prairie, Texas.
 
Hunter Mayo scattered six hits and one run in 5.1 innings of work and picked up his second win of the year after Jared Webb pitched a hitless 1.2 innings out of the bullpen.
 
The Muleriders (5-3) scored early after Jon Phillips laced an opposite field one-out double and scored on a wild pitch after Korey Keith moved Phillips to third with a lineout.
 
In the third inning, SAU would plate two more runs. Keith singled and the senior from Warner, Oklahoma, would cross home after an errant throw from the Gorilla infield on a single by Carver Rademacher.
 
A sacrifice fly from the bat of Chris Quinn would score Trevor Rucker who quickly found his way into scoring position after being hit-by-pitch, stealing second and moving to third on a throwing error.
 
Southern Arkansas would continue to stay hot at the plate in the fifth inning. Phillips tripled to right-center and scored on a sacrifice fly by Keith. Billy Germaine launched a solo shot with two outs to put SAU up 6-0.
 
An RBI double scored the only run for the Gorillas in the 6^th, but SAU answered with four more runs to push ahead 10-1. Quinn doubled and stole third. William Townsend walked and swiped second to set up a two-RBI single by Chase Harvey. Two more runs would cross on a bases loaded throwing error by Pitt St before the Muleriders ended the contest on single by Harvey that scored Byron Reichstein.
 
Harvey, Phillips and Germaine all had two hits apiece. Harvey collected three RBIs and Keith added two. Phillips scored three runs while Keith and Townsend added a pair of runs scored each.
 
Southern Arkansas heads to Shreveport, Louisiana for a 6 p.m. first pitch with NAIA-member #10 Louisiana State University-Shreveport on Tuesday, February 10^th.