MONTICELLO, Ark. – #6/4 Southern Arkansas bounced back from a 10-0, run-rule defeat to Arkansas-Monticello in Friday afternoon's Great American Conference series opener to top the Weevils 7-3 in game two behind four RBI from senior Tucker Burton and the seventh complete game performance by freshman right hander Jeremy Adorno. SAU and UAM will decide a series winner on Saturday at noon in the regular season finale in Monticello.
 
It was a tough start for the Muleriders (37-10, 27-5 GAC) in game one as SAU managed just two hits, both by senior Jacob Martinez, while the Weevils built a 3-0 advantage through four innings off of Mulerider starter Wyatt Marr and then proceeded to add four more runs in the fifth and three more in the seventh to invoke the run-rule.
 
In the seven-inning affair, Southern Arkansas surged late after falling behind 3-1 through the first inning of play. In the sixth, Burton homered with freshman Brandon Nicoll on to tie the game at 3 and in the seventh it was the latter that singled in the go-ahead run with a base knock through the left side to give SAU a 4-3 lead. Burton followed by tripling in two more runs to make it 6-4 and would score on an error on a batted ball by junior Ty Manning.
 
Adorno worked around an RBI double in the bottom of the first and back-to-back RBI groundouts that helped the Weevils build its early advantage. From the second inning to the post-stretch seventh, Adorno would allow only three base runners while striking out six as he improved to a national-best 13-0.
 
Burton and Nicoll each collected two hits each and both scored twice with Burton accounting for four RBI and Nicoll adding two.