Southeastern Takes GAC Opener Over OBU

DURANT, Okla. – Caleb Dubler's bat and Cody Nitson's arm got Southeastern's conference-opening series against Oklahoma Baptist off to a solid start with a 5-1 victory on Friday afternoon at The Ballpark in Durant.
 
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 3-5 overall on the year and starts the conference season off at 1-0 with a double-header slated for noon on Saturday at The Ballpark in Durant.
 
The game was originally scheduled to be played in Shawnee, Okla. Before weather became an issue and forced the move to Durant, however Oklahoma Baptist remains the home team on the scoreboard, earning last bat.
 
Nitson spun together an impressive 8.0 inning outing, allowing one run on three hits with 10 strikeouts to earn his first win of the year.
 
Logan Teske would toss the final inning, striking out two of the four batters he faced.
 
Dubler powered the offense, going 3-for-4 at the plate with two home runs and as triple while driving in four of the team's five runs.
 
Austin Ferguson and Joseph Cerda each added two-hit outings, while Bryce Deatherage and Easton Elliott each added a hit.
 
Elliott also turned in an RBI.
 
Dubler put the Storm on the board in the top of the third inning with a home run to lead off the3 inning and hand OBU's Jake Lipitzky his first earned run of the season.
 
Ferguson would follow up with a two out single through the left side, moving to second on a wild pitch and coming around to score on an Elliott RBI single to open up a 2-0 lead midway through the third.
 
SE loaded the bases in the top of the fifth inning but left them that way, allowing OBU to close the gap in the bottom of the fifth inning with a solo homer from Kaimana Bartelome to cut the lead in half to 2-1.
 
A single and a walk in the top of the sixth would chase the Bison starter and bring on Andrew Appenbach with one on and two out for Dubler who connected on his second homer of the contest, driving in Whitworth to put SE up 4-1 in the middle of the sixth inning.
 
Dubler would strike again in the top of the eighth with a two-out triple to right, driving in Cerda and pushing the lead to 5-1.
 
Nitson would power through the bottom of the eighth before handing the ball to Teske in the ninth who struck out two of the four batters he faced.