SEARCY, Ark. – #21 Southern Arkansas had no use for its bullpen on Saturday afternoon in Central Arkansas as it turned to the complete game efforts of
Mikel Howell and
Tim Ruffino as well as the bat of
Brandon Nicoll to grab both ends of its Great American Conference doubleheader at #24 Harding. SAU won the day's first game 2-1 and then found a rhythm offensively in the finale winning 12-1 to take all three contests in the top 25 series. The wins move SAU to an unbeaten 9-0 in league play and to 15-3 overall as head coach
Justin Pettigrew's squad has now won seven-consecutive games.
In the opener, Howell allowed just five hits and two walks, while striking out eight as he went the full nine to improve to 3-0 on the season. The right-hander gave up three hits, walked two and allowed the lone run on a fourth-inning wild pitch through the first four frames of action. From there he settled in even more as he tossed a perfect fifth, retired the side via punchout in the seventh and pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, while gutting through two ninth-inning singles to finish the job. Support for Howell came in the sixth as Nicoll hammered a two-run shot out to right field to plate
Grant Roosma, who reached on a one-out single, and give SAU a 2-1 advantage. The latter made sure the shot was upheld as he threw out a ninth-inning base runner at second for the frame's second out.
Those two hits in the sixth joined a
Jaden Woolbright single with two gone in the third. SAU walked just once and was hit-by-pitch twice (
Chris Sutton, Nicoll) against HU starter Davis Welch who suffered his first loss of the season in a complete game effort.
In the finale, SAU struck for three first-inning runs and did not look back as they added two more in the second, broke out with a five-run third inning and scratched two more in the seventh to stake Ruffino to superfluous run support. Ruffino worked around seven hits and a single earned run, which came in the third inning, and fanned four to remain unbeaten on the year at 3-0. He pitched out of a three-hit third inning to strand a pair of HU base runners, was unphased by a two-out double in the fifth and worked quickly in the final two innings allowing just one base runner.
Run-scoring singles by
Chris Lyles and
Trace Shoup sandwiched an RBI walk from
Mikey McGinnis for the opening three runs of the final game. Nicoll left the yard for the second time on Saturday, and for the seventh time this season, in the second to score two more runs. A sacrifice fly by Woolbright, a steal home by Shoup, a run-scoring double from Nicoll and a two-RBI single by
Will Richardson blanketed the action in the third.
Carter Claerhout pushed across the final two with a seventh-inning double.
Nicoll, Richardson, Lyles and Shoup all recorded two hits in the finale. Nicoll led with three RBI and Richardson and Claerhout each followed with two. Nicoll scored three times with Roosma and Sutton both crossing twice. SAU drew seven walks, was hit-by-pitch three times and swiped four bags against six Harding arms.
The Muleriders look to next weekend where they will return to Magnolia and put an 8-1 home record on the line for a three-game GAC series against Henderson State on March 8 and 9. Live coverage links of the action will be available at
www.MuleriderAthletics.com.
