RUSSELLVILLE — The Arkansas Tech baseball team came out on top, 3-2, in a Friday night pitcher's duel against Southern Arkansas out at Baswell Field.
Tech was able to beat the Muleriders in the series-opener behind great pitching performances from Jack Rector and Austin Mittelstedt. Rector got the start and pitched 7.0 innings with seven strikeouts. SAU was able to score a pair of runs on five hits off Rector, but he did well in not allowing a crooked number in his outing.
Mittelstedt came on in relief of Rector in the top of the eighth and pitched the final two innings to collect his second win of the season. Mittlestedt would allow no runs, two hits, no walks and struck out four.
Before Mittlestedt was able to put the finishing touches on the game, the Wonder Boys were the first to score, doing so in the bottom of the second inning as Luke Ray reached on a fielding error by the SAU shortstop.
In the next half inning, SAU tied the score with a two-out solo home run. The Muleriders continued to threaten in the inning as a walk and a hit-by-pitch followed, but Rector was able to escape with no further damage on a lineout to left for the third out.
An inning later, however, the Muleriders were able to push across the go-ahead run on a bases loaded wild pitch.
That score held until the bottom of the sixth when the Wonder Boys tied the game up. The inning began with a leadoff hit-by-pitch taken by Grant Jones. Two batters later, Jones was moved to third on a single to right-centerfield by Ray. With runners on the corners and one out, the Wonder Boys attempted to pull off a double steal. Ray was cut down going for second, but Jones was able to score on the play.
A similar scenario played out for the Wonder Boys in the bottom of the eighth inning as Jones got on base to lead off the inning, this time he was able to reach on an error and get to second on the play. Drew Vega then moved him to third with a perfectly-placed bunt single to the right of the pitcher's mound. With runners on the corners, the Wonder Boys again attempted a double steal and were out going to second, but able to score on the play from third, this time to take the lead.
In the top of the ninth, Mittelstedt faced some pressure as SAU had two on and one out through the first three batters of the frame. On the first pitch to the fourth SAU batter of the evening, the score nearly flipped as SAU's Lee Matsuzaki hit ball to the edge of the warning track in right field, but Baswell Field held it in for the second out. Mittlestedt then struck out the next batter to end the game.
The Wonder Boys and Muleriders will conclude their series on Saturday afternoon with a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.
