MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The Southern Arkansas Baseball team opened up home play this Tuesday afternoon with midweek action against the Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys. The teams combined for 31 runs, but unfortunately Tech edged SAU by just a single run to win 16-15. The non-conference matchup deals SAU their third loss of the season (7-3) while ATU improves to 8-5.
Santos Sosa earned the loss after a 2.0 inning appearance that saw only a single hit and zero earned runs. The junior struck out two of the ten batters he faced to record almost half of SAU's five strikeouts. The Wonder Boys looked to the help of nine different arms with Will Horton earning his first win of the year following a hitless 1.0 inning appearance. Mason Griffin earned his third season of the season as he wrapped up the final inning of the high-scoring game with zero hits and three strikeouts.
Arkansas Tech started the game off with a bang, homering the first seen pitch of the afternoon and homering in their first two plate appearances of the second inning to gain an early 3-0 lead. The Wonder Boys stacked on an additional two runs in the second to increase their early lead. Southern Arkansas responded with an insane rally in their half of the inning, seeing nine runs on six hits, three of which went for extra bases. The teams dotted runs here and there until Arkansas Tech took a 15-13 lead with an eight-run effort in the seventh. Will Richardson flied out to center, but forced a run across home in the process before Allen walked in the tying run. The teams took the tied score to the ninth where the Wonder Boys scored on a wild pitch and SAU was unable to respond to drop the game 15-16.
Southern Arkansas will play their first home conference series this weekend with three games slated against East Central. First pitch is schedule to 6 p.m. on Friday. Live Coverage links will be available at www.MuleriderAthletics.com.
Southern Arkansas Notes
*Chris Sutton continued his hot hitting streak, going 4-6 to have recorded a hit in his last six games. The junior recorded almost a third of the Muleriders' 14 hits himself and added two RBI throughout his impressive night at the plate.
*Senior Conner Allen hit two home runs to serve as the first time this season a Mulerider has homered multiple times in the same game. The Plano, Texas native recorded multiple home runs for the first time in his Mulerider career and has recorded a home run in back-to-back games for the third time. Allen ended the night going 2-2 with five RBI and three runs scored.
*Chris Lyles contributed four RBI in his two-hit night. Each of the junior's hits went for extra bases, recording a double and the Muleriders' first triple of the season.
*Eight of the nine starters recorded hits and six recorded at least one RBI. The team combined for the most hits yet this season (13) and recorded their most extra base hits.
*Junior Chance Bolter made his longest career appearance, tossing 4.2 relief innings where he allowed three earned runs on five hits while striking out three to match a career high.
Arkansas Tech Notes
*Sawyer Duddleston and Keaton Ranallo recorded three hits each and combined for half of the team's 14 RBI. Ranallo hit two bombs to account for five runs. Two additional Wonder Boys recorded multiple hits while four others contributed to their 14-hit effort.
*Nine Wonder Boy arms combined for the ATU win with six of the pitchers tossed 1.0 innings or less. Grant Shahan made the longest appearance, throwing three innings that saw four strikeouts, two walks, two runs and three hits.
*The teams saw their most home runs of the season (4) and homered in the same inning for the first time this year.
