HOUSTON, Texas - The Arkansas Tech baseball team played the third of three games at the home of the Houston Astros as part of the Houston Winter Invitational on Sunday evening against No. 9-ranked Southern New Hampshire and the Wonder Boys came away with the win, 7-4.
In their final game of the weekend, the Wonder Boys turned to junior left-hander Jack Rector and after two scoreless innings, the Tech offense started to back his strong effort on the mound in the bottom of the second as Keaton Ranallo hammered a solo home run over the Crawford Boxes in left field.
Two innings later, in his next at-bat, Ranallo unloaded another solo homer to left, giving Tech a 2-0 lead. Three batters later, the Wonder Boys doubled their lead on the strength of a two-run home run to left field off the bat of Cole Dawson.
In the next half inning, the Penmen gave Rector the first blemish on his outing as they registered their first hit to lead off the inning. Later in the frame, the Penmen scored twice to cut the deficit in half. With two outs and the Southern New Hampshire lineup back to the top, the Wonder Boys went to the bullpen and called upon Mason Willis. Willis got the third out to retire the side and keep it a 4-2 lead for Tech.
Willis came back in the top of the sixth and worked an efficient 1-2-3 frame, placing him in line for the win in relief.
That gave way to the bottom of the sixth where the Wonder Boys scored twice to push their lead back out to four, 6-2. The inning started as the Wonder Boys loaded the bases with no outs. Logan Schwenke led the inning off with a hit-by-pitch and then consecutive walks were issued to Dawson and Brandon Bunton. The first run was forced in during the Shane Poe at-bat as he drew a walk. Two batters later, Christian Olea singled through the left side to score Bunton.
The Wonder Boys would score one more run in the bottom of the eighth as Nick Jones singled through the right side to drive in Sawyer Duddleston, who tripled two batters earlier.
Southern New Hampshire scored a pair of runs in the top of the ninth to bring the final score to 7-4.
The Wonder Boys will now prepare for a four-game series on the road at No. 5 Central Missouri. The first game of the series is scheduled to take place on Friday, February 9 with a 3 p.m. first-pitch.
