Ware Homer Lifts SE to Series-Opening Win

DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern traded haymakers with No. 14 Arkansas Tech in the series opener on Friday afternoon, with Richard Ware getting the last word with a two-run homer in the eighth inning to lift the Savage Storm to a 9-7 victory in the Great American Conference opener at Mike Metheny Field.
 
The win lifts SE to 8-2 to start the season and 1-0 to open league play, with the final two games of the series slated for a noon doubleheader on Saturday afternoon.
 
After the Storm knotted the score at 7-7 in the sixth inning, both teams found offense hard to come by, particularly as Kenneth Klier came on in the top of the eighth were he retired the side.
 
In the bottom half of the inning, Dylan Herd would reach on an error and two batters later Ware would connect on a two-run homer that sailed over the left-field wall to put SE in front 9-7.
 
Klier would come back out in the ninth and after allowing a leadoff single would strikeout two of the next three hitters on the way to securing the win.
 
Klier would collect his first win of the season after tossing 2.0 innings and striking out four of the seven batters he faced.
 
Reid Rice led the offense with a 3-for-4 outing that included two doubles and a home run, while Blake McQuain and Cameron French added two hits each.
 
Ware and Rice both homered, while McQuain, French, and Brett Gonzalez each had a double, with Rice adding two.
 
French drove in a game-high three runs, while Ware and Rice drove in two apiece. McQuain and Seth Morrow each added one.
 
Jacob Potter got the start but lasted 2.1 innings while allowing six runs on seven hits with a strikeout.
 
Jordan Compton came on in relief and tossed 3.2 innings where he allowed a run on a hit with two strikeouts.
 
Conner Priest followed with an inning of work, allowing a hit and striking out one before handing the ball to Klier.
 
ATU would take the lead in the top of the first on an RBI double and led 1-0 at the midway point in the inning.
 
Southeastern would answer with three runs on back-to-back doubles from Rice and French to take the lead at 3-1 after one.
 
A two-run homer in the top of the second would even the score at 3-3, but a Morrow RBI single and a French RBI single would push the lead back to 5-3.
 
Unfortunately for SE that lead would not last long as the Wonder Boys would get a two-run homer followed immediately by a solo shot to take a 6-5 lead in the top of the third.
 
Rice's solo homer in the fifth inning would again tie the game up at 6-6.
 
But once again, that did not last long as ATU scored on a sac fly in the top of the sixth to go ahead 7-6.
 
The Storm grabbed the momentum back in the bottom of the sixth as McQuain doubled home a pinch-running Michael Bernhardt to tie the game at 7-7 and set the stage for Ware's game-winning heroics.