BETHANY, Okla. – The Southern Arkansas Baseball team moved back into the win column on Saturday afternoon as the Muleriders topped Southern Nazarene 6-2 in the Great American Conference series opener from Feland Field. SAU senior starter Zach Smith went the distance on the mound as he struck out a dozen, scattered eight hits and allowed just two runs, while the Muleriders collected ten hits and pushed across a combined four runs in the final three innings to break a 2-2 tie and improve to 18-7 in GAC play. The two teams decide the series on Sunday with a doubleheader scheduled for a noon first pitch. Live coverage links are available at www.MuleriderAthletics.com.

Smith walked only two batters and just one of the two runs allowed was earned as he picked up his fourth win of the season. In the final four innings, only one batter reached base and Smith recorded a half dozen of his strikeouts. He faced 35 batters and used eight groundouts and five fly outs along with his dozen punch outs to dismiss the Crimson Storm on Saturday.

The Muleriders pushed across the game's first run in the top of the first inning as sophomore Brett McGee singled home senior Austin Baker. Sophomore Riley Orr doubled to left field in the second inning which plated freshman Chris Lyles and staked Smith to a 2-0 lead. SNU added single runs in the third and fifth innings to tie the game at 2, but the aforementioned latter inning run support sent the Muleriders to a game one win.

A double off the bat of senior Kobe Morris in the pre-stretch seventh plated Baker to give the Muleriders a 3-2 lead. McGee belted a solo shot out to right field, his ninth of the season, in the eighth inning and senior Mason Peterson followed with a two-run dinger, his second of the campaign, as the three-run frame in SAU's second-to-last bat cushioned Smith's gem.

McGee recorded three hits and Baker and Morris each delivered two. McGee collected two RBI as did Orr, while Baker scored two of the six runs.