DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern knocked out 16 hits on the day and cruised to a series-opening victory over rival East Central on Friday, 14-6, at The Ballpark in Durant.
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 20-23 overall on the season and 15-15 in Great American Conference play, with the final two games of the series slated for a 1 p.m. twinbill on Saturday.
Travis Spinney,
Austin Ferguson, and
Jett Swigart each collected three hits on Friday, while
Brett Akins and
Cade Clay added two each.
Ferguson piled up four RBI on the game, while Swigart drove in three, with
Joseph Cerda and
Harrison Whitworth adding two RBI each. Spinney,
Easton Elliott, and Clay each drove in one.
Spinney also piled on three stolen bases in the contest.
Cody Nitson got the start and collected the win after tossing 7.0 innings and allowing six runs on nine hits while striking out eight.
Collin Jameson tossed an inning in relief and struck out two while allowing a hit.
Jonny Mireles,
Scott Brinkley, and
Bailey Burks each faced a batter in the ninth inning, with Mireles and Burks earning strike outs and none of them allowing a baserunner.
The Storm jumped to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, first scoring on a Ferguson double which plated Spinney before adding back-to-back-to-back RBI from Elliott, Cerda, and Swigart later in the inning.
ECU would respond with two runs in the second and another in the third to close the gap to 4-3.
SE answered in a big way in the fourth inning, first on an RBI single by Spinney, followed two batters later by a three-run homer by Ferguson to open up an 8-3 lead.
After back-to-back singles and a walk the bases would be loaded later in the inning when Swigart drove in a run on an HBP, followed by a two-run single by Whitworth and finally an RBI single from clay to polish off an eight-run inning and take a 12-3 lead.
ECU would close the gap slightly with two runs in the fifth and another in the seventh, but Cerda and Swigart would post RBI in the eighth to push the lead out to 14-6 which would hold to be the final score.
