Baseball Splits GAC Home Opener vs. SWOSU

DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern bounced back from a loss in game one to salvage a split with Southwestern Oklahoma State in the Great American Conference home opener, dropping game one 11-3 before bouncing back with a 6-1 win in game two on Friday afternoon at The Ballpark in Durant.
 
The series will conclude on Saturday afternoon with first pitch slated for 1 p.m.
 
The split moves the Savage Storm to 7-5 on the season overall and 3-2 in GAC play.
 
In game two Nick Johnson collected his second win of the season on the hill after SE answered SWOSU's unearned run in the top of the first with seven unanswered runs between the first and the third innings.
 
Trailing 1-0, the Storm evened the score on a balk in the bottom of the first that scored Kaleb Thomas.
 
Collin Sefcik would put SE up when he plated Dylan Helms on a groundout.
 
The lead stretched to 3-1 on a Cody Coats double that scored Corban Taylor and the Storm finished the four-run inning on a Chance Burcham sac fly that scored Jacob Soisson for a 4-1 lead.
 
Another Coats double in the third would again plate Taylor and one batter later Burcham would again drive in Soisson on a sac fly to give SE a 6-1 lead which would hold to be the final.
 
Taylor and Coats each collected a pair of hits, while Thomas, Helms and Soisson had one each.
 
Coats and Burcham drove in a pair of runs apiece, with Sefcik collecting the team's other RBI.
 
Johnson tossed a complete game for his second win and allowed one unearned run on five hits with five strikeouts.
 
The opener did not go as smoothly for SE as the Bulldogs scored single runs in the first, fourth and seventh inning to open up a 3-0 lead.
 
A Coats solo homer in the bottom of the seventh closed the gap to 3-1, but SWOSU would put up three in the top of the eighth to open up a 6-2 advantage.
 
Southeastern would answer with a pair of runs, first on a Sefcik single that scored Thomas and later when Sefcik himself scored on a wild pitch to make the score 6-3.
 
That was as close as it would get as SWOSU would add five more in the top of the ninth to hand SE an 11-3 loss.
 
Evan Sanders got the start and took the loss, his first of the season, after tossing 3.2 innings and allowing a pair of runs on one hit with three strikeouts.
 
Bryce Clemons added 3.2 innings in relief and allowed two runs, one earned, on four hits with three K's.
 
Mathew Benedict added an inning of work and was hit for seven runs on three hits with three strikeouts before Taylor finished the game with two-thirds of an inning of work, one strikeout and no hits allowed.
 
Sefcik, Taylor, Coats and Burcham each collected a hit in the effort, with Sefcik and Coats driving in a run each.