Baseball Splits Twinbill at SAU

MAGNOLIA, ARK. – Southeastern closed out the series at Southern Arkansas by salvaging a split in Monday's twinbill, taking the series finale 8-3 after opening the day with a 9-5 loss in Magnolia, Ark.
 
The split moves the Savage Storm to 4-6 overall and 1-2 in Great American Conference play.
 
Easton Elliott turned in a 3-for-4 effort in the finale and drove in four runs, while Jett Swigart added a 3-for-4 performance of his own with an RBI.
 
Joseph Cerda turned in a hit and a pair of RBI, while Autsin Ferguson tacked on an RBI as well.
 
Bryce Deatherage collected his first win of the season after tossing 6.0 innings and allowing three runs on eight hits with seven strikeouts.
 
Jake Patterson would close out the game with an inning of work and a pair of K's.
 
Elliott would put SE on the board in the top of the first with an RBI single up the middle to drive in Austin Ferguson.
 
SAU would knot the score at 1-1 in the bottom of the second, but Elliott would strike again in the top of the third with a three-run homer to score Akins and Ferguson for a 4-1 lead.
 
The Muleriders would get one back in the bottom of the third on a solo homer, but Cerda would return the favor times two in the top of the fourth with a two-run shot which scored Swigart to make the lead 6-2.
 
SAU would get another run back in the bottom of the fifth, but the Storm offense would find yet another answer on a Ferguson RBI to open up a 7-3 advantage.
 
Swigart would tack on an insurance run for the Storm in the top of the seventh by singling home Elliott to set the 8-3 final score.
 
Akins would put the Storm in front in game one with a solo homer in the second inning and would extend the lead with an RBI double in the third.
 
Akins' double was followed by a Cerda RBI single to open up a 3-0 lead midway through the third inning.
 
SAU responded with a pair of runs, one on an error, to cut the SE lead to 3-2.
 
Deatherage would tack on a run for the Storm in the top of the fourth with a sac fly that scored Jett Swigart for a 4-2 edge.
 
The Muleriders would cut it to 4-3 in the bottom of the fourth before turning in five runs on the fifth to take an 8-4 lead.
 
A Dan Weer homer in the seventh would cut into the deficit and make it 8-5, but SAU would tack on a run in the bottom of the seventh to make the final 9-5.
 
Akins finished the contest with a 3-for-4 outing, while Swigart added a three hit performance as well, with Weer and Travis Spinney turning in two hits each.
 
The Storm held a 13-to-11 edge in hits as a team.
 
Akins drove in a pair of runs to lead the way, while Deatherage, Cerda, and Weer each drove in one.
 
Greg Hubbell got the start on the hill and took the loss after allowing eight runs, seven earned, on 11 hits while striking out four in 4.2 innings of work.
 
Jake Patterson followed with 1.1 innings of work and struck out two before Bridger Dauenhauer faced one batter and was tagged with a run.
 
Cody Johnson followed up with 1.1 innings of scoreless ball before Dallas Guerrero closed out the remaining two-thirds of an inning with a pair of K's.