KENNEDALE, Texas – The Southern Arkansas baseball team had a pair of five-run innings in the opening game of Sunday's doubleheader against Northwestern Oklahoma as SAU cruised to a 13-1 win in the opener. In the nightcap, however, the SAU bats cooled in a 4-0 loss to force the split.
The first of those five-run innings for the Muleriders (13-8, 6-5 GAC) came in the bottom of the first and staked SAU to an early 5-0 lead. In that inning, SAU would collect five hits with two going for extra bases. One of those extra-base knocks was the big blow in the frame as
Austin Bishoff connected on a three-run homerun. The other two runs in the frame would score on a single off the bat of
Josey Langston.
An inning later, the lead grew to 7-0 as
Billy Germaine hit a two-RBI ground-rule double to left field, scoring
Trevor Rucker and
Michael Page. That Germaine double chased the Rangers' (8-15, 6-5 GAC) starting pitcher Zach Postoak as he gave way to reliever Kyle Renbarger.
Renbarger would pick up a pair of strikeouts to get out of the second inning and worked around a one-out walk in the third to settle things down momentarily, but the Muleriders' offense would get back to work in the fourth inning as they once more struck for five runs.
In that five-run fourth, the Muleriders would total three hits while also benefitting from a pair of errors by the Rangers as SAU now had a commanding 12-0 lead. Collecting RBIs in the frame were Bishoff,
David LaFleur,
Keaton Miller, and Langston. The Muleriders' 13th run of the game came in the bottom of the six as
Michael Page hit a sacrifice fly to centerfield.
A half inning after SAU's five-run fourth inning however, the Rangers would spoil the shutout bid that was being worked on by SAU starter
Kenneth Tabor as they put together consecutive two-out doubles in the top of the fifth to push across their lone run.
Despite losing the shutout, Tabor would go on to earn his fifth win of the season as he ended up going the distance in the seven-inning, run-rule shortened game by scattering five hits, walking one and striking out five.
In the back half of Sunday's twin bill, the Rangers would get on the board first as they pushed across a run in the top of the first on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Thomas Bess.
It would remain a 1-0 game until the top of the fourth when Bess scored the second run for the Rangers on a strange play that saw Bess attempt to steal third base and on the throw to third to cut him down, the ball would connect with the bat of the hitter at the plate and carom away, allowing Bess to score.
The Rangers would double that two-run lead with a pair of runs in the top of the sixth to make it a 4-0 game.
With that score holding true into the bottom of the seventh, the Muleriders began to piece together a rally attempt as they loaded the bases with no outs, but the Rangers' game two starter Robert Lawhorn would escape without any damage as he struckout the next three batters to end the game.
The Muleriders and Rangers will decide the series on Monday afternoon as the rubber game is set to be played at 1 p.m. at Trantham Field in Kennedale, Texas.
