WEATHERFORD, Okla. – The No. 21-ranked Southern Arkansas baseball team avenged a 10-2 loss in the opening game of Friday afternoon's doubleheader at Southwestern Oklahoma by picking up a 10-5 win in the nightcap to force a split with SWOSU.
In the opening game, Southwestern found the scoreboard first as the Bulldogs (11-7, 5-3 GAC) plated a pair of runs in the bottom of the first. In the top of the second, Southern Arkansas would tally their first run of the game as
Justin Buchanan singled up the middle, scoring
Austin Bishoff. That single was one of three hits for Buchanan in the opener as he went 3-for-4 with his other two hits being doubles.
After not scoring in the bottom of the second, SWOSU plated two more runs in the bottom of third to take a 4-1 lead. SWOSU would go on to score a single run in the fourth, two in the fifth, and another single run in the sixth to extend their lead out to 8-1.
Another two-run inning in the bottom of the eighth pushed the Bulldog lead out to 10-1. SAU would push across their second run of the game in the top of the ninth as Buchanan scored on a passed ball to bring the game to its eventual final of 10-2.
In the nightcap, SAU scored the first run of the game as Buchanan's single up the middle in the third chased home
Billy Germaine.
In the next inning, SAU would rip the game wide open as they struck for seven runs on eight hits to make it 8-0, Muleriders. In that frame, the Muleriders would total five extra base hits with all five of those coming in succession.
The first extra-base hit was a one-out double down the left field line off the bat of
Trevor Rucker, which scored
Jake Tisevich. Germaine then followed with a double of his own to score Rucker. Bishoff then chased home Germaine on a double into centerfield.
In the next at-bat, Buchanan continued his hot hitting as he belted a two-run homerun out to centerfield. A batter later saw the Muleriders go back-to-back as
Jackson Murphy connected for his first collegiate homerun.
The Bulldogs would get one of those runs back in the bottom of the fourth on a solo homerun by Jacob Spring.
In the top of the fifth, SAU pushed their lead back out to eight runs as Buchanan reached on a fielding error by the Bulldogs' shortstop allowing Rucker to score. In the bottom of that inning, however, SWOSU struck for two more runs to make it a 9-3 game.
A Bishoff RBI triple to right-centerfield in the top of the seventh represented SAU's 10th and final run of the game, but a two-run homerun in the last half of the seventh brought the second game of the doubleheader to its final of 10-5 in favor of SAU.
The Muleriders and Bulldogs will conclude their three-game series tomorrow as the rubber game is set for a 1 p.m. first-pitch in Weatherford.
