MAGNOLIA, Ark. – Justin Buchanan muscled an RBI double off of the centerfield wall and scored two batters later to give the Southern Arkansas baseball team a 7-5 series opening win over East Central University in a Great American Conference affair that was delayed 76 minutes due to lightning in the sixth inning on Sunday night inside Walker Stadium at Goodheart Field.
 
The Muleriders (30-14, 16-9 GAC) pick up their 30^th win of the year for the fifteenth consecutive season and for the 24^th season out of the past 25 years. Hunter Mayo was impressive in three innings of relief of SAU starter Landon Simpson, allowing only two hits while striking out three in picking up his sixth win of the season.
 
After ECU plated a run in the top of the first, Southern Arkansas answered by plating a pair of runs in the bottom half off of Tiger starter Quentin McGrath. Jon Phillips reached on a throwing error and Korey Keith moved his classmate to second on single to centerfield. Billy Germaine followed with a base hit through the left side that loaded the bags for Carver Rademacher.
 
Rademacher placed a double down the left line, scoring Phillips and Keith to give SAU an early 2-1 lead. Both pitchers worked a quick second inning before the Tigers scratched two runs off of Simpson in a five-hit third  inning that also stranded the bases loaded.
 
The next two Mulerider trips to the plate resulted in only one hit, while ECU pushed across a single run in the 4^th inning to push their lead to 4-2. In the bottom of the fifth, William Townsend and Phillips reached without having to take a swing on a hit-by-pitch and a walk, respectively. With one out, Keith singled to load the bases.
 
Germaine collected his second single of the game with a two-run base knock that plated Townsend and Phillips. Rademacher picked up his third RBI with a sacrifice fly that sent Keith home to put the Muleriders up 5-4.
 
The Tigers quickly tied it up in the sixth on an RBI groundout, before play was halted due to lightning in the area. After the delay, the Muleriders went down in the sixth on eight pitches, but Mayo cruised through the seventh and eighth, before his battery mate supplied him with a pair of runs.
 
Buchanan's aforementioned double scored Trevor Rucker who led off the home half of the eighth with a single, before advancing to second on a wild pitch and then immediately moving up to third on a throwing error by the Tiger catcher. Buchanan later scored on the same sequence: a wild pitch moved him to third and another throwing error by the catcher scored him.
 
Mayo needed only eleven pitches to retire the Tigers in the ninth to give SAU the series opening win.
 
Southern Arkansas collected eight hits, including a pair by Keith and Germaine that resulted in runs as Rademacher delivered with three RBIs.
 
The Muleriders return to action tomorrow with a doubleheader against the Tigers that is scheduled to begin at noon from Walker Stadium at Goodheart Field.