ALVA, Okla. – #18 Southern Arkansas notched its third-straight Great American Conference series win on Friday afternoon as the Muleriders put away the upstart Rangers of Northwestern Oklahoma with a pair of two-run wins (7-5, 6-4) to improve to 7-1 in league play. Offensively, SAU recorded 17 hits and took advantage of five Ranger errors, while the Mulerider pitching staff worked around 22 NWOSU hits as it stranded 20 Ranger baserunners in the 16 innings of action.
Southern Arkansas (12-4, 7-1 GAC) scored first in both games, jumping out to early 2-0 leads. In the opener, the Muleriders trailed 5-2 through three innings, but a two-run home run from
Dakota Wright in the fourth inning and an RBI fielder's choice off the bat of
Cooper King in the fifth tied the game at 5 runs each through five innings.
A mishandled sacrifice bunt from the bat of
Jansen McCurdy in the seventh inning plated the go-ahead run for the Muleriders, while a Ranger error in
Brett McGee's at bat added an insurance run for SAU reliever
Nathan Stubber (W, 2-1) and fellow bullpen mate
Matt Kortendick (S, 4); who picked up his fourth save of the season after allowing a single hit and one walk in the final 1.2 innings. Stubber scattered three hits and an HBP in 2.1 innings of relief of starter
Garrett Walker.
Following the 7-5 win in the series opener, Southern Arkansas plated two runs in the top half of the first, third and fourth innings as
Hunter Brantley (W, 2-3) earned the win following a dispersing of seven hits which plated four Ranger runs.
Remy Bilodeau surrendered just a single base hit and fanned a pair in two strong innings of relief, while Kortendick (S, 5) worked around a leadoff walk in the bottom of the seventh as the Muleriders claimed a 6-4 win and the series.
At the plate, McCurdy opened up scoring in game two with a first-inning, two-run blast, while
Justin Hanlin recorded two of SAU's eight hits in the opener. Both players scored twice in game one. McCurdy along with
Austin Baker and
Zach Muldoon all registered two hits in the seven-inning affair. Wright stole a pair of bags on Friday; swiping one in each game.
The Muleriders and Rangers will conclude the series tomorrow afternoon in a 1 p.m. first-pitch from Myers Stadium in Alva. Live coverage links are available at
www.MuleriderAthletics.com.
