Baseball Splits Day One at ATU

DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern recovered from a series-opening loss at Arkansas Tech to pick up a Friday split with a 2-1 win on Friday night in Russellville, Ark.
 
The split moves the Savage Storm to 8-8 overall on the season and 5-3 in Great American Conference play with the series finale slated for a 1 p.m. first pitch on Saturday.
 
In game two the teams remained scoreless until the Storm broke through in the top of the fourth as Caleb Dubler scored on a wild pitch to take a 1-0 lead.
 
ATU Answered with a run in the bottom half, but SE used small ball to tack on a run in the fifth as Cerda singled and stole second, moved to third on a groundout and came home on a Ferguson single to take a 2-1 lead which would hold up to be the final score.
 
Mason Whitmarsh improved to 3-1 on the year with a complete game, tossing 7.0 innings and allowing a run on four hits with five strikeouts.
 
Davis Jenks and Drew Bolin collected two hits each, while Slayde Ortiz, Cerda, Ferguson, and Mason McCain each added one.
 
Ferguson picked up the lone RBI.
 
In the opener, Joseph Cerda turned in a pair of this and an RBI, while Davis Jenks, Harrison Whitworth, and Caleb Dubler added a hit each.
 
Cody Nitson got the start and took the loss after tossing 3.1 innings and allowing seven runs, five earned, on 10 hits with one strikeout.
 
Jacob Bigham was tagged for three runs on two hits in an inning of relief work before handing the ball to Jordan Compton who tossed 1.2 innings and allowed a hit while striking out two.
 
Kason Grant finished the game with one-third of an inning, allowing a run on three hits.
 
ATU put up three runs int eh first inning and the Storm answered in the top of the third with a run on a Cerda RBI single to score Whitworth.
 
The Wonder Boys would tack on four runs in the fourth and three more in the fifth to open up a 10-1 lead before finishing the contest with a run in the bottom of the seventh to trigger the 11-1 run rule.