ENID, Okla. – Trailing 3-1 through five innings of play in the opening game of the 2015 Great American Conference Baseball Tournament, the Southern Arkansas baseball team rallied for three runs in the sixth and added five in the seventh and one more in the eighth to lift them to a 10-3 win on Saturday afternoon at the David Allen Memorial Ballpark in Enid.
 
In that sixth inning, the Muleriders (36-15) got a one-out double by Byron Reichstein which was then followed by consecutive walks to load the bases. Justin Buchanan then lifted a sacrifice fly to left field to pull SAU to within a run, 3-2. A double steal in the next at-bat moved Trevor Rucker and Chris Quinn into scoring position. Chase Harvey then laced an opposite field double to right-centerfield to plate Rucker and Quinn and put SAU up 4-3.
 
That crooked-number sixth inning for the Muleriders proved to be the difference in the game as starter Landon Simpson hung zeros in the Save Storm (17-24) run column over the final four innings en route to picking up his fifth complete-game of the season.
 
In the bottom half of the seventh, SAU broke the game open with five runs on five hits to take a 9-3 lead. Three of the five hits for the Muleriders went for extra bases as Korey Keith, Billy Germaine and Buchanan all doubled in the frame. Buchanan's double chased home a pair while Keith's and Germaine's two-baggers sparked the run-scoring binge.
 
The final Mulerider tally came home on a groundout to second base off the bat of Reichstein in the bottom of the eight.
 
The Muleriders will now advance in the winner's bracket of the tournament and will take on the loser of the game between Harding and Henderson State, which will play one another in the 7 p.m. game. SAU and the loser of that contest will play at 4 p.m. on Sunday.