Savage Storm Baseball Takes Game One at UAM

MONTICELLO, Ark. – Five Southeastern players homered and the Savage Storm held off a late Arkansas-Monticello rally to pick up a 12-9 win in the series opener on Friday night in Monticello, Ark.
 
The win lifts SE to 16-24 overall and 12-13 in Great American Conference play with the final two games of the series slated for a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday afternoon.
 
Brady Evans, Wesley Mitchell, Chase Keeton, Jake Miller, and Payton Poole each had a home run, while Mitchell, Miller, and Ryan Kirk each doubled.
 
Keeton and Miller finished the contest with three hits apiece, while Evans, Mitchell, Poole, and Alex Showalter each had two.
 
Carter Olson and Ryan Kirk had one hit each.
 
Miller drove in three to lead the way for the Storm, while Evans, Mitchell, Keeton, and Poole had two RBI apiece.
 
Colton Sagely also added an RBI.
 
Michael White got the start for the Storm and tossed three innings but took a no decision after allowing three runs on three hits with four strikeouts.
 
Ryan Rauss followed and tossed the next three innings, allowing a run on two hits with four strikeouts while picking up the win.
 
Carson Abbott picked up the next 1.2 innings and was tagged for four runs on to hits before Parker Pecina followed and allowed a run on two hits in one-third of an inning.
 
Brayden Phelps came on in the ninth but allowed a hit and a walk without recording an out, setting the stage for Austin Hillebrandt to retire the final three hitters to pick up the save.
 
Southeastern opened scoring in the top of the first inning as Keeton connected on a solo homer, but UAM knotted the game at 1-1 in the bottom half of the inning with an RBI double and took a 2-1 lead on a sac fly.
 
The Storm picked back up in the second as Miller led off with a double and scored a batter later on a Poole homer.
 
SE pushed the lead to 4-2 later in the inning on an RBI groundout by Evans.
 
The Boll Weevils picked up a run in the bottom half to close the Southeastern lead to 4-3.
 
Miller pushed the Storm lead to 6-3 in the top of the third with a two-run home run that also scored Sagely.
 
SE picked up the pace in the fourth, picking up a run on a Mitchell RBI double, followed consecutively by an RBI single from Keeton, a Sagely RBI on a squeeze bunt, and an RBI single off the bat of Miller, pushing the lead out to 10-3 midway through the fourth.
 
Evans led off the sixth inning with a solo homer, but UAM answered with a solo shot of its own in the bottom half of the inning to make the score 11-4 after six innings.
 
Mitchell extended the ted to 12-4 with a solo home run in the top of the eighth inning.
 
UAM picked up five runs in the bottom of the eighth, closing the Storm advantage to 12-9, but SE would hang on to that lead and make it the final score.