CLEVELAND, Miss. – The No. 25-ranked Southern Arkansas baseball team staved off a bases loaded, two-out, ninth-inning rally by former Gulf South Conference rival Delta State to come away with a pivotal 6-5 road win on Wednesday night at Boo Ferriss Field.
 
The win lifts the Muleriders to 15-8 overall while the loss drops the Statesmen to 2-8 on the season.
 
A key cog in the Muleriders' victory on Wednesday night was Billy Germaine as the junior transfer went 3-for-5 with a double, a homerun, and four RBIs.
 
Germaine would get the Muleriders on the board first in the game as he doubled to right-centerfield to score Jon Phillips in the top of the first inning. With SAU up 2-1 in the fifth, Germaine singled home two more runs put the Muleriders up 4-1.
 
The Statesmen would answer that two-run fifth with four runs of their own in the bottom half, however, as DSU took a 5-4 lead.
 
After a scoreless sixth, Germaine would collect his fourth RBI of the game as he led off the frame with a solo homerun to left-centerfield, knotting the game at 5-all. The homer for Germaine was his fifth of the season.
 
Two batters later, Trevor Rucker singled, then stole second base to set up the eventual game-winning hit for Carver Rademacher as Rademacher doubled home Rucker, putting SAU on top 6-5.
 
That score would hold up over the remainder of the game as Jace Powers kept the Statesmen off the board despite DSU putting the tying run on base in each of the final three innings. In the seventh, Powers, who came on in relief in the sixth, would induce an inning-ending double play to work around a one-out hit-by-pitch and then stranded a one-out single in the eighth.
 
In the ninth, Powers would get two quick outs, but the Statesmen would not go quietly as a pair of errors and a walk loaded the bases and put the potential game-winning run in scoring position. Despite the serious Statesmen threat in the ninth, Powers would induce a fielder's choice ground ball to Rucker at shortstop to end the game and give SAU the 6-5 victory.
 
The Muleriders will now turn their attention to Great American Conference play as they travel to Arkadelphia this weekend and are set to take on first-place Ouachita Baptist, who will carry an unblemished GAC record into the series. The three-game set is scheduled to begin on Friday, March 13 with a first-pitch time of 2 p.m. at Rab Rogers Field.