MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The Southern Arkansas baseball team earned a doubleheader split with East Central on Monday afternoon inside Walker Stadium at Goodheart Field and in the process clinched a berth in the upcoming 2015 GAC Tournament to be played on May 2-5 in Enid. Oklahoma.
The Muleriders (31-15, 17-10 GAC) dropped the first game 10-4, but bounced back in the rubber match with a 9-4 victory behind solid pitching from starter
Yumezo Densaki and reliever
Travis Johnson.
East Central banged out 15 hits that resulted in ten runs in game one, but the duo of Densaki and Johnson held the Tigers to only four runs on four hits in game three.
In the series finale, Southern Arkansas scored early as
Billy Germaine plated the game's first run on a sacrifice fly that scored
Chase Harvey. A five-run second inning for the Muleriders was highlighted by a bases clearing three-run double by Germaine that made it 6-0 SAU after two innings of play.
Justin Buchanan collected an RBI single that scored
Byron Reichstein in the third inning as the Muleriders padded their lead 7-0. Through four innings of work, Densaki allowed only one hit while striking out four.
East Central scratched four runs off of Densaki in the fifth inning as Johnson took over in relief. Reichstein was hit-by-pitch to lead off the bottom of the fifth and would eventually come around to score on a
William Townsend RBI single that gave the Muleriders an 8-4 lead.
Johnson made quick work of the Tigers in the sixth inning on five pitches as he induced a 4-6-3 double play. In the bottom half of the sixth,
Korey Keith launched his first homerun as a Mulerider into right field for the ninth and final run in the win.
Jon Phillips, Reichstein and Townsend collected multi-hit games in game one on Monday and Reichstein joined Keith and
Chris Quinn for multi-hit performances in the rubber match. Germaine finished the day with five RBIs. Densaki moved to 4-1 on the year, while Johnson picked up his seventh save of the season.
The Muleriders prepare for the final week of their regular season as they travel to Searcy, Arkansas, for a nonconference matchup with Harding on Wednesday, April 22, before returning home for the final GAC series of the season with a three-game affair against Arkansas-Monticello. Wednesday's game is scheduled for 3 p.m. The weekend series with UAM will begin on Friday, April 24 at 6 p.m. and conclude with a Senior Day doubleheader on Saturday, April 23.
