RUSSELLVILLE — The Arkansas Tech baseball team won both games of their doubleheader on Monday afternoon at Southeastern Oklahoma to complete the three-game sweep and keep them one game ahead atop the conference standings.
GAME ONE
In the opener, the Wonder Boys and Savage Storm traded two-run homers in the first inning as Logan Schwenke registered the blast for Tech in the top of the frame. Tech then scored another two runs in the second inning off a two-run single to left-centerfield by Grant Jones.
Once more, the Savage Storm had the answer in the form of a two-run home run, but this one came an inning later in the third, tying the score at four-all.
In the fourth, however, the Wonder Boys kept swinging a hot bat and plated four runs on six hits to take an 8-4 lead. In that frame, Cole Dawson led off with a single through the left side. Markos Cabranes then connected with a homer out to left field. Two batters later, Schwenke hit his second bomb of the game, this time a solo shot out to right-centerfield. Later in the inning, Brendyn Bard drove in the fourth run on a single to right.
After neither team scored in the fifth, the Wonder Boys tacked on three runs in the sixth to tighten their grip on the game. All three of those runs were scored on the strength of a home run off the bat of Keaton Ranallo.
The Savage Storm scored their fifth run of the game in the bottom of the eighth on a solo home run, but Tech answered back with two runs in the top of the ninth to bring the game to its final score of 13-5.
GAME TWO
Game two needed extra innings to decide the winner as Tech came back from an early 3-0 deficit to take a lead in the sixth before Southeastern tied it in the bottom of the seventh to send the game into extras.
The 3-0 lead for the Savage Storm came through the first two innings as they scored twice in the first and once in the second. The Wonder Boys got their first run of the game in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Ranallo. In the top of the sixth, Tech struck for three runs to take a 4-3 lead.
The RBIs in that inning came on a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch taken by Ranallo, a fielder's choice by Bard and a sacrifice fly from Shane Poe.
Southeastern applied pressure in the bottom of the frame and had bases loaded with one out before reliever Simon Murray struck out the final two batters to end the inning with the lead intact.
In the bottom of the seventh, Southeastern got a leadoff single and then were down to their last out after consecutive strikeouts. The Savage Storm would not wilt in the moment, however, and got consecutive singles to chase home the tying run and send the game to extra innings.
With the game now into extra innings, the Wonder Boys pushed across the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth on a bases loaded walk issued to Nick Jones and were able to make it stand up as Grant Shahan secured his third save of the season.
UP NEXT
The Wonder Boys have a quick turnaround for their next game as they are back at home on Tuesday afternoon to play Union in the final non-conference game of the regular season. Union enters the game 17-25 overall and are coming off a series win this past weekend at home against the University of Montevallo.
This will be the second of two games played between the Wonder Boys and Bulldogs this season. The first meeting came back in late March at Union. The Wonder Boys would win that game 11-7 over the Bulldogs.
