MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The Southern Arkansas baseball team overcame an early 5-0 deficit through the first two innings to eventually come away with a 14-10 win over Henderson State in non-conference action on Tuesday night at Walker Stadium at Goodheart Field.
The come-from-behind rally for the Muleriders (28-17) started in the bottom of the third when nine-hole hitter
Michael Page cranked out a two-run homerun out to left-centerfield. Page's homerun was his second of the season and made it a 5-2 game, with Henderson still on top.
In the next half inning, the Reddies (25-22) plated a single run to push their lead out to four-runs, 6-2. However, a three-run bottom of the fourth pulled SAU to within a run, 6-5. In that inning, the Muleriders benefitted from a throwing error by the Reddies' third baseman on a possible double-play ball that came with the bases loaded and no outs.
With the error, SAU scored two runs on the play and a batter later,
David LaFleur lined a sacrifice fly into left field to account for the third tally in the inning.
In the top of the fifth, the Reddies scored the first of what ended up being three runs scored on two-out infield singles for each team as HSU's Alex Morgan beat out an infield single to the shortstop. As the play was developing at first, Tadarious Hawkins, who was on second base at the time, never broke stride around third and wound up scoring rather easily once Morgan was deemed safe at first; making it a 7-5 game.
A half inning later, the Muleriders took their first lead of the game on the strength of a pair of no-doubt homeruns off the bats of
Billy Germaine and
Trevor Rucker. Rucker's homerun came first and was a two-run shot that tied the game at seven-all, while Germaine blasted a solo homerun out to centerfield to give SAU an 8-7 lead.
In the top of the sixth, the second of the crazy infield single plays occurred again as this time it was HSU's Hawkins who beat out the throw at first, allowing the runner at second base to score as he also did not break stride on the play. That one tied the game at eight-all, and two batters later, Henderson recaptured the lead on a two-run single up the middle by Luke McGuire.
Germaine singled through the right side of the infield in the bottom of the inning to plate a run for the Muleriders and brought them back to within a run, 10-9.
After a 1-2-3 inning pitched by reliever
Makenzy Larsen in the top of the seventh, the Muleriders tied the game at 10-all in the bottom of the inning in the fashion in which the Reddies plated a pair of runs, on a two-out infield single. This instance saw SAU's
Josey Langston hustle down the first base line to earn the safe call at first, while pinch-runner
Jake Alexander raced around from second base to score the tying run on a slide.
Larsen was sharp once more in the eighth, retiring the side in order to keep it a 10-all game.
In the bottom of the eighth, Rucker drew a leadoff walk and not long after reaching first, Rucker put himself into scoring position by swiping his 20
th stolen base of the season. A deep flyout to left-centerfield off the bat of
Justin Buchanan moved Rucker to third base as the potential go-ahead run.
Germaine, who now has 16 homeruns on the season to rank him second in the GAC, was then intentionally walked to set up a possible double-play. In the ensuing at-bat,
Keaton Miller pushed across the go-ahead run as he laid down a sacrifice bunt towards the first base line. With the bunt down, Rucker was able to score from third as he slid in safely under the tag of the Reddie catcher.
The Muleriders went on to add three more runs of insurance that inning before handing the ball to
Jared Fielden for the ninth. Fielden, in a non-save situation, struck out the side to seal the win.
The Muleriders will now prepare for their final regular season series as they are scheduled to travel to Monticello to take on GAC-leading Arkansas-Monticello. The three-game series is slated to begin on Friday, April 29 at 2 p.m.
