GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Six strong innings from senior Kenneth Tabor combined with late power production by the Mulerider offense was more than enough for Southern Arkansas in its season opener as the Muleriders topped No. 8 Emporia State 6-1 in a windy first game of the Air Hogs DII Classic at the Ballpark at Grand Prairie. The Thursday morning meeting between two of last season's participants in the Central Region Tournament served as the first game of the NCAA Baseball season among all three divisions.
 
Tabor (1-0) tallied eight strikeouts and allowed just one hit and one earned run, before giving way to the Mulerider bullpen which utilized transfer junior Eric White in the seventh and eighth innings and redshirt freshman Tanner Vaught in the ninth.
 
In three innings, White and Vaught combined to give up just two hits as both right-handers produced efficient outings in their first appearance as Muleriders. Tabor's eight strikeouts are the most by an SAU starter on opening day since Hayden Simpson fanned 13 batters in a 13-1 win against Missouri Southern in the 2010 season opener.
 
The Muleriders trailed for the first 4 ½ innings of the game after a two-out, first inning solo homerun by Emporia's Bryce Fischer stood as the only Hornet run of the morning. Southern Arkansas stranded four base runners in the first four innings of play, but in the bottom half of the fifth the Muleriders pushed across a pair of runs to take a lead that they would not surrender.
 
In that run scoring frame, a handful of Muleriders making their SAU debuts delivered offensively to help change the direction of the game. Transfer junior Kane Koenigseder led off the inning by taking a 2-2 pitch back up the middle to reach on a leadoff single and would quickly move to third base as senior Sam Mrstik doubled down the leftfield line to put Southern Arkansas in a position to take the lead.
 
True freshman infielder Riley Orr followed Mrstik by picking up his first career RBI on a groundout to second that scored Koenigseder and advanced Mrstik to third. Transfer sophomore Austin Baker joined Orr in the RBI category as he plated Mrstik on a sacrifice fly to give the Muleriders a 2-1 lead.
 
Tabor worked around base runners on first and second in the top of the sixth by inducing an inning-ending 6-4 double play. The following inning White took over for Tabor and kept the one-run lead intact by following a groundout to first with back-to-back strikeouts to shove the Muleriders into the bottom of the seventh.
 
Southern Arkansas tacked on a single run in the seventh inning as transfer senior Jansen McCurdy reached on a leadoff double, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt from Koenigseder and scored after Mrstik sent the third pitch of his at bat into left field to give SAU a 3-1 lead.
 
Emporia threatened in the eighth inning with a runner at second with two outs in the inning, but White closed down the threat to send Southern Arkansas to what would be a three-run bottom of the eighth inning.
 
In the eighth, the Muleriders received back-to-back jacks from All-GAC standouts Jacob Richardson and Mark Fontenot to begin the frame and tallied the final run of the opener after McCurdy raced home from second on an RBI single from the bat of Koenigseder.
 
McCurdy and Orr each finished with three hits, with all three of the former's coming as doubles. McCurdy also scored two of SAU's six runs, while Mrstik and Koenigseder each collected two hits apiece. The middle of the Southern Arkansas order, McCurdy, Mrstik and Orr, combined for eight of the Muleriders' 13 hits as well as three runs and two RBI.
 
The Muleriders return to the Ballpark at Grand Prairie tomorrow for day 2 of the Air Hogs DII Classic and will play Washburn with a projected start time set for 1 p.m. on Friday, February 2. Live links for all of the action are available at www.MuleriderAthletics.com.