SE Finishes Season-Opening Sweep of Tigers

DURANT, Okla. – Reid Rice started Southeastern off with a bang as he connected on a first-inning grand slam to help lift the Savage Storm to a 6-2 victory over East Central in the finale of their non-conference, season-opening series on Monday afternoon.
 
The game was originally slated to be played in Ada, Okla., but after Sunday's games were moved to Melissa, Texas, today's game was flipped to Mike Metheny Field due to continued field conditions in Ada, Okla.
 
The win pushes SE to 3-0 to open the season heading into its originally schedule home opener on Feb. 8 when it hosts Northeastern State at 2 p.m. for a single game at Mike Metheny Field.
 
Rice finished Monday's game with a pair of hits, including the grand slam, while Seth Morrow added two hits.
 
Joseph Ramirez and Dylan Herd each collected a hit as well.
 
Rice's four RBI led the way for the Storm with Matt Miles adding an RBI as well on a sac fly.
 
Jordan Compton got the start on the hill and was tagged for just two runs, one of them earned, on two hits with a strikeout over 4.0 innings of work.
 
Cole Canuteson came on in relief and tossed 3.0 innings and scattered two hits while striking out five without allowing a run to earn the victory.
 
Conner Priest followed with an inning of work, striking out one, while Jackson Sioson closed out the contest with an inning pitched and one hit allowed.
 
Richard Ware would draw a two-out walk in the top of the first inning, followed by a Morrow single and a Brett Gonzalez walk to set the table for Rice who took the ball out to left field and opened up a 4-0 lead.
 
ECU would get a run back in the bottom of the third, but a half-inning later Angel Ochoa would steal second and come around to score on a throwing error by the Tiger pitcher, stretching the lead to 5-1.
 
East Central would swipe another run back in the bottom of the fourth, taking advantage of a Storm error to close the gap to 5-2.
 
Both teams stayed quiet until the top of the seventh when Miles would plate Damon Burroughs with a sac fly to left, giving SE a 6-2 lead which would hold up as the final score.