RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. - It was a highly-touted series and rightfully so as #10 Southern Arkansas and Arkansas Tech met in Russellville with both teams tied atop the Great American Conference standings at 16-5 overall. Behind a complete-game effort from sophomore Jeremy Adorno in Friday night's opener and timely go-ahead base knocks by sophomore Brandon Nicoll in both ends of Saturday's doubleheader, the Muleriders swept the Wonder Boys 3-2, 5-3 and 5-3 to improve to 19-5 in league play, two games up on second-place Ouachita with nine remaining before May's conference tournament. SAU's overall record moves to 27-10.
Adorno (6-1) worked around a two-hit, two-run inning in his first trip to the mound to then scatter six hits over the next eight innings as he registered his tenth career complete game as a Mulerider.
The right-hander struck out nine and worked around three walks and two hit-by-pitch to limit the ATU bats in the opener. The Muleriders also received a solid relief outing by Santos Sosa in game two as he tossed 4.2 innings in relief of starter Mikel Howell (4.1 IP, 1 H, .071 AVG) recording seven strikeouts and allowing just two hits. In the finale, Isaiah Haynes earned his ninth save of the season as Jack Liddell (3.2 IP, 1 R, 2 K) earned the win in relief of fame three starter Wyatt Marr (2.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R).
At the plate, Nicoll recorded two of SAU's five doubles and he was joined in four-hit weekends by Riley Orr (3 R, 4 BB), Chris Lyles (1 HR, 1 2B, 2 RBI) and Conner Allen (1 2B, 3 RBI, 2 R).
Nicoll highlighted the timely hitting by the Muleriders who pushed across ten of the team's 13 runs in the fifth through seventh innings. Nicoll's first knock was a two-out, two-run single into right field in the sixth inning of game two, while his second hit came with two gone in the top of seventh inning as he doubled on the first pitch he saw to plate two and giv e the Muleriders a 5-3. Prior to Nicoll's go-ahead base hit, an RBI ground out off the bat of Brett McGee tied the game at three.
The Muleriders accounted for 21 hits to go along with a dozen walks and six hit-by-pitch across the three games. On the mound, SAU worked around 21 hits of which just two went for extra bases. Mulerider arms fanned 19 batters and allowed 2.6 runs per game to a Tech offense that entered averaging 8.5 runs per contest.
The Muleriders return home to host Southwestern Oklahoma in a Great American Conference series schedule for Friday-Saturday. Any changes to start times or dates will be announced at www.MuleriderAthletics.com. Live links will also be available.
