Storm Split Friday Twinbill vs. HU

DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern outhit Harding in both contests and collected 22 hits over two games but finished the day with a split in their twinbill, winning the opener 7-5 before finishing the day with a 7-4 loss at The Ballpark in Durant.
 
The Savage Storm move to 10-10 overall on the season with the split and 6-5 in Great American Conference play with the rubber match for the series slated for 2 p.m. on Saturday.
 
In the series opener, Austin Ferguson connected n a pair of home runs and accounted for four RBI to pace the Storm offense, while Colton Buckner posted three hits.
 
Luke Thomas, Niko Piazza, Harrison Whitworth, and Caleb Dubler each picked up two hits, while Drew Bolin and Slayde Ortiz added one each.
 
Bolin and Piazza posted an RBI apiece.
 
The teams combined for 27 hits as the Storm posted 15 as a team in the opener.
 
Cody Nitson got the start and collected the victory, surviving a rough first two innings he would settle in and toss 8.0 innings, allowing five runs on 12 hits with six strikeouts.
 
Beau Swimmer would come on to start the ninth inning and retire the first hitter before Logan Teske stepped in to record his second save of the season in two-thirds of an inning with a strikeout.
 
Harding to a 1-0 lead on a leadoff home run, but after loading the bases with one out, Nitson would strikeout the six and seven hole hitters to get out of trouble.
 
SE took advantage in the bottom half of the inning as a Bolin single put a runner on for Ferguson who connected on his second homer of the year to put the Storm in front 2-1.
 
The Bisons regained the lead with a four-run second inning to go up 5-2, but the Storm answered in the bottom half with a run on a Bolin sac fly with the bases loaded to close the gap to 5-3 heading to the third.
 
Neither team got on the board in the third inning and SE kept the Bisons scoreless in the top of the fourth.
 
The Storm then took advantage in the bottom half of the fourth, first on Ferguson's second two-run homer of the game followed by Colton Buckner scoring on an error by the HU left fielder before a Piazza single would plate Luke Thomas for a 7-5 lead after four innings.
 
That would be the end of scoring for both teams as Nitson would settle in and scatter five hits over six innings before Swimmer and Teske closed out the final inning to preserve the 7-5 victory.
 
In the nightcap, Joseph Cerda collected three hits to lead the offense, while Ortiz, Thomas, Davis Jenks, and Whitworth each added one.
 
Cerda, Ortiz, and Dubler each accounted for an RBI as well.
 
Mason Whitmarsh got the start and took the loss after getting touched up for seven runs, six earned, on five hits in 3.0 innings of work with two strikeouts.
 
Collin Jameson tossed 1.2 innings in relief without allowing a hit before Jordan Compton finished the game with 2.1 innings pitched without allowing a hit and one strikeout.
 
The Bisons again took a first inning lead, this time on a grand slam to go ahead 4-0 midway through the first inning.
 
SE would get a run back in the bottom half after cashing in a Cerda single two batters later with an Ortiz RBI single to make it 4-1.
 
The Storm would get two runs back in the bottom of the second, first when Thomas scored on a wild pitch and the second a few pitches later on an RBI groundout by Dubner to close the gap to 4-3.
 
A pair of homers in the top of the third would stretch the HU lead back out to 7-3 midway through the third inning.
 
Ortiz would drive in Harrison Whitworth to tack on a run in the fourth inning and cut the gap to 7-4 after four.
 
Both teams were quiet in the fifth, and the Storm would use a Davis Jenks single and a Harding error to bring the tying run to the plate with one out in the bottom of the sixth, but were held without a run, leaving the final at 7-4.