Southeastern Completes Sweep of SNU

DURANT, Okla.  – Southeastern polished off a three-game sweep of Southern Nazarene on Saturday with an 11-8 win in game one followed by an 8-6 win in the series finale at the Ballpark in Durant.
 
The wins lift the Savage Storm record to 13-14 overall and 9-7 in Great American Conference play which propels them back into the mix in a tie for fourth with Arkansas-Monticello.
 
SE will step out of conference for a double-header on March 31 at Arkansas-Ft. Smith before taking the weekend off and then facing Oklahoma Christian in Edmond on April 6.  The team returns home the following day for a single game against Rogers State before welcoming Southern Arkansas to the Ballpark for a three game conference series April 10-11.
 
The Storm offense picked up on Saturday where it left off on Friday, racking up 15 hits in the first game, led by the trio of Kaleb Thomas, Collin Sefcik and Conner Koepp who had three each, followed by Corban Taylor and Brandon Grimsley with two apiece.
 
Dylan Helms, Taylor and Koepp each drove in two runs, while Chance Burcham, Jacob Soisson and Grimsley plated one each.
 
Logan Terwilliger got the start but took a no decision after tossing 4.1 innings and allowing five runs, three earned, on six hits with three strikeouts.
 
He gave way to Brady Colbert who tossed 4.2 innings in relief and allowed three runs on five hits with five K's but held on to earn the win and move to 5-2 on the season.
 
SNU took advantage of SE miscues to open up a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning, but the Storm did get a run back when Sefcik scored on a Grimsley double in the bottom half to make it 2-1.
 
The Crimson Storm extended its lead to 3-1 with a solo homer in the third, but an RBI groundout by Tayklor would plate Koepp and Thomas would come home on a wild pitch to tie the game at 3-3 after three.
 
Another SNU homer in the fourth and an SE error in the fifth spotted the visitors a 5-3 edge.
 
Southeastern got one back in the bottom of the fifth on a Soisson ground out to close to 5-4.
 
The Storm would then regain the lead in the sixth, first tying the score when Helms was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, and then taking the lead when Koepp scored thanks to a throwing error by the SNU first baseman.
 
They would stretch the advantage to 7-5 with an RBI groundout by Burcham to finish scoring in the sixth.
 
Koepp would add a two-run homer in the seventh, followed by and BRI double by Helms and an RBI single by Taylor to open up an 11-5 lead.
 
SNU would pick up three runs in the eighth, but the Storm would hold on for the 11-8 win.
 
The offense continued to roll in the finale as the team reeled off double-digit hits for the third straight game, led by three from Taylor.
 
He was joined by Thomas, Helms and Grimsley who each had a pair of hits while four others had one apiece.
 
Taylor, Soisson and Grimsley each drive in a pair of runs, while Helms and Sefcik added an RBI each.
 
Nick Johnson landed his third win of the year on the hill as he allowed six runs on 11 hits with four strikeouts in 5.0 innings.
 
Mathew Benedict picked up his first save of the year by tossing the final 2.0 innings without allowing a run and giving up just one hit.
 
SNU took the lead first again, this time with a groundout RBI in the top of the first, but SE had an immediate answer in the bottom half, first on a Helms RBI triple and then going up 2-1 on a Taylor ground out to plate Helms.
 
The Crimson Storm tied the game with another run in the top of the third, but a Soisson sac fly followed by a two-run Grimsley single would stake SE to a 5-2 advantage.
 
SNU would pick up two runs in the top of the fourth to close to within a run, but Sefcik would drive in Thomas and that was followed by an RBI infield single by Soisson to open up a 7-4 lead after four innings.
 
The Crimson Storm would again close the deficit to one run in the top of the fifth, but a Taylor solo homer in the bottom of the sixth would put Southeastern  up 8-6 which would hold to be the final score.