Wonder Boys take series two games to one over Tigers

RUSSELLVILLE — The Arkansas Tech baseball team picked up a win in the series-opener at home against Ouachita Baptist on Saturday night with a 2-0 shutout out at Baswell Field.
Both runs scored early in the game as Tech scored a single run in the second inning and another single run in the third.
The run in the second scored on a throwing error by the Tigers' starting pitcher, Cooper Timmons as he airmailed first base on Cole Dawson's successful sacrifice bunt attempt. Scoring on the play was Shane Poe, who doubled to right field to lead off the inning two batters prior.
In the third, the Wonder Boys' run centered around Dawson once more as he was hit-by-a-pitch with the bases loaded and two outs. Forced home on the plunking of Dawson was Christian Olea, who walked with one out earlier in the inning. Brendyn Bard doubled while Poe walked earlier in the inning to get the bases loaded.
That little bit of offense would standup for the Wonder Boys as they got a solid start out of John Gray and dominant relief pitching from Simon Murray and Mason Griffin.
Gray would pitch 5.0 innings and scatter three hits with one walk and struck out five. Murray came on in the sixth and handled that inning and the next two to get the game to the ninth. He would also allow three hits, walk one and strikeout five.
Griffin was touched up a little with two hits allowed, but he was able to shut the door on his first save of the season as he got a game-ending groundout to second base with the tying run on base.
The wonder boys split Sunday's doubleheader. In the opener, the Wonder Boys shutout the Tigers for the second-straight game, but fell by a run in the nightcap.
GAME ONE
Sunday's opener was an old fashioned pitcher's duel between Tech's Emiliano Mata and Ouachita's Chase Oberle as the two starters combined for no runs on seven hits with nine strikeouts through the first five innings.
Mata added a sixth inning of shutout baseball to his line with a three-up and three-down top of the inning. In the bottom of the frame, the Wonder Boys' offense finally broke through against Oberle and scored a run on two hits.
Christian Olea led the inning off with a double to centerfield. Brendyn Bard then singled through the left side to move Olea to third with no outs. With runners on the corners, Shane Poe drove in Olea on a successful sacrifice bunt down the left field line.
Staked to a one-run lead, Mata came back in the top of the seventh but was pulled after two batters as he walked the first and got an out on a fielder's choice in the next at-bat. Grant Shahan then came on in relief of Mata and was against the ropes pretty quickly as the first batter he faced doubled to put runners at second and third with one out.
The Tigers, desperate for a run, then attempted a safety squeeze, but a great pick in the dirt by Olea behind the plate allowed him to apply the tag to the crashing baserunner for the second out of the inning. Shahan then got out of the inning with a harmless ground ball to second base.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Wonder Boys added a run of insurance on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Keaton Ranallo. Ranallo's sac fly scored Nick Jones, who hit a one-out double in the previous at-bat.

Shahan then worked around a two-out single in the eighth to keep the Tigers off the board.
A half inning later, in their final trips to the plate, the Wonder Boys added one more run of insurance for good measure. This run scored on a successful sacrifice bunt with runners on the corners by Cole Dawson. Coming home to score for the Wonder Boys was Brandon Bunton, who led off the inning with a walk.
Now with a three-run lead to work with, Shahan was called upon to finish things out and that's extacly what he did. After surrendering a leadoff infield single, Shahan went on to strikeout the side to end the game and secure his second save of the season.
GAME TWO
The second game started off with a bang for Ouachita as they scored their first run in 18 innings with a leadoff home run in the top of the first off of Tech starter Jack Rector. Rector would shake that off and went on to strikeout the side.
He would do the same thing in the second as he racked up six strikeouts through two innings of work.
The Tigers would get to Rector in the third inning, however, and chased him from the start with three runs on three hits.
In the fourth, Tech cut their deficit in half with a two-run inning. Keaton Ranallo led the inning off with an infield single and then got to second a wild pitch. Christian Olea followed with a single to move Ranallo to third. Brendyn Bard then hit a sacrifice fly out to left field to score Ranallo for Tech's first run of the game.
Two batters later, Shane Poe singled to right field to score Olea for the second run of the inning.
The Wonder Boys would get another run closer in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a RBI single through the left side by Ranallo, scoring Tyler Sardelli, who walked three batters prior.
Neither team scored in the sixth, but Ouachita was able to get a run of insurance in the top of the seventh on a solo home run. That proved to be a big run as the Wonder Boys would push across a run in the bottom of the inning and had the potential tying run on base and the potential winning run at the plate.
Despite that, the Tigers would eventually get the final out to salvage a game in the series.
UP NEXT
The Wonder Boys will be on the road this coming weekend at Northwestern Oklahoma for a three-game series. The series is slated to start on Friday night with a 6 p.m. first-pitch.