ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – After not playing an extra-innings game through their first 26 games of the season, the Southern Arkansas baseball team has played beyond nine innings in consecutive games with this most-recent game coming at Henderson State on Friday night. Unlike the first result at Ouachita on Tuesday, however, SAU would come out on the down side, falling to Henderson by a score of 6-5 in the series opener between the two.
Before Friday's game pushed into extra innings, the Muleriders (18-10, 10-6 GAC) and Reddies (13-16, 9-7 GAC) were locked in a scoreless stalemate through the first three innings before SAU's
Billy Germaine blasted a solo homerun out to left field to lead off the fourth. The Reddies would come back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame, however to take a 2-1 lead.
A scoreless fifth inning on both sides gave way to a four-run sixth inning for the Muleriders as they surged ahead 5-2. In that sixth inning, the Muleriders would get a two-RBI double down the left field line off the bat of
Jake Tisevich, a RBI single to right field by
Keaton Miller, and sacrifice bunt RBI from
Michael Page.
The three-run lead gained in the top of the sixth was in support of SAU starter
Kenneth Tabor. In the bottom of that sixth, Tabor would issue a leadoff walk, but the sophomore left-hander was able to get out of the inning without any damage.
In the top of the seventh, the Muleriders would be retired in order and in the bottom of the inning, Henderson pushed across a run on a two-out single from Hunter Mayall to make it a 5-3 game.
The bottom of the eighth saw the Reddies mount another rally and in the process chased Tabor from the start after a one-out single and then a walk placed the tying run on base.
Makenzy Larsen would the reliever called upon from the bullpen, but an errant pickoff attempt during the at-bat of the first man he faced would move both runners into scoring positon.
Following that error, HSU plated their fourth run on a RBI groundout to
Josey Langston at second base. A batter later, the Reddies would tie the game on RBI double by Tadarious Hawkins.
With the game now tied with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, the Muleriders turned to the bullpen once more and called upon
Jared Fielden. Fielden would work around a pinch-hitter to get to the Reddies' nine-hole hitter and a groundout to shortstop ended the eighth.
In the ninth, the Muleriders would put a pair of runners on, but HSU reliever Blake Patterson would get out of the inning with a swinging strikeout. In the bottom of the frame, Fielden would allow a two-out hit-by-pitch, but a swinging strikeout of his own would send the game into extras, tied at five-all.
In the 10th, SAU would be held out of the run column and nearly just as soon as that happened, the potential game-winning run for Henderson was at third base as AJ Kruzel tripled into right field, past a diving
Trevor Rucker.
With a myriad of ways to push that run across for the Reddies, the Muleriders intentionally walked the next two batters to load the bases and increase their chances of not allowing that winning run to score from third.
However, early in the ensuing at-bat following the pair of intentional walks to load the bases, a wild pitch from Fielden would get away far enough, allowing Kruzel to score the winning run.
These two teams will pick up the remainder of their series on Saturday with a doubleheader starting at 2 p.m.
