Baseball Drops Home Opener in Extra Innings

DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern collected four homers but it was not enough o offset six errors en route to a 10-9 loss in 10 innings on Wednesday afternoon to Northeastern State in a midweek matchup at Mike Metheny Field.
 
The loss dips the Savage Storm to 1-3 to open the season heading into a three-game series versus Arkansas-Ft. Smith Feb. 7-9 at Mike Metheny Field.
 
Ryan Kirk led the SE offense with a 3-for-5 effort that included a home run and two RBI.
 
Gage Dollins and Payton Polle each turned in a pair of hits, with Pool adding one of the home runs.
 
Chase Keeton and Coby Grimsley would each tack on homers, while Brady Evans, Wesley Mitchell, and Austin Thorp joined the duo with one hit apiece.
 
Keeton and Kirk finished the contest with two RBI each, while Grimsley, Poole, and Alex Showalter drove in one apiece.
 
Southeastern used nine pitchers over 10 innings, with Michael White getting the start and allowing an unearned run in an inning of work.
 
The next three pitchers would combine for 2.1 innings and allow four runs, three earned, on five hits before handing off to Carson Abbott who tossed a scoreless 1.2 innings and struck out two.
 
Tanner Carter and Brock Zimmer threw two innings each, allowing a run each on a combined four hits.
 
Ryan Rauss suffered the loss after allowing three runs, two earned, on three hits without recording an out.
 
Parker Pecina closed out the contest with an inning of scoreless ball.
 
NSU put up a run each in the first and second innings before the Storm cut the deficit to 2-1 on a Poole solo homer to right.
 
The RiverHawks added another run in the top of the third and two more in the fourth to push its lead to 5-1.
 
Southeastern got one back in the bottom of the fourth when Showalter legged out a fielder's choice which allowed Nick Mueller to score, closing the gap to 5-2.
 
However, NSU answered with a run in the top of the sixth to extend its advantage to 6-2.
 
Southeastern got a run back taking advantage of a RIverHawk error when Evans scored from second on a Coby Grimsley fly ball to center that was dropped, closing the deficit to 6-3 heading to the eighth.
 
Kirk got the Storm offense moving in the bottom of the eighth with a two-run homer to left that scored Austin Thorp, and Dollins scored to knot the contest at 6-6 later in the inning, taking advantage of an NSU error by the shortstop.
 
The RiverHawks opened the top of the ninth inning with a solo homer, but Southeastern answered in similar fashion in the bottom half as Grimsley homered to right to tie the game at 7-7 and send it to extra innings.
 
NSU again struck first in the top of the 10^th with a two-run single to take the lead and extending it to 10-7 by taking advantage of a Southeastern error.
 
SE struck back in the bottom of the 10^th with Evans reaching on a fielder's choice before scoring when Chase Keeton connected on a two-run homer, but that was where the rally would end as SE fell 10-9.