ALVA, Okla. - Northwestern Oklahoma State baseball took on the Bearcats of Northwest Missouri State for the second game of the mini-series with NWMSU, Sunday afternoon and came away with a tough 8-3 loss to cap off the weekend. 

Starting on the bump for the home squad was freshman from Arlington, Texas, Nick Llorente who went five great innings in his freshman debut for the Rangers, allowing no hits, but surrendered one run on a single in the top of the sixth. 

Seven other Ranger hurlers made appearances on the day for the home team, as Nick McKinney, Jon Bauer, Sean Rydell, Blake Jones, Collin Fouts and freshman Brandon Nesseralla all took the mound.

Only one Ranger was able to get in double-digit hit territory in Jorin Van Amstel who recorded two, while Garrett Douglas, Casey Dickerman and Arturo Castro recorded the other three. Scoring the three runs were Van Amstel, Jacob Long and Steven Deckard.

Neither team was able to get any run support in the first couple innings, but both were able to reach base, but both threats were thwarted by quality pitching a defense. Llorente got caught in a jam in the top of two, giving up a walk, a dropped third strike and a balk, loading the bases full of Bearcats, but the freshman finished the inning with no damage done.

Northwestern drew first blood in the bottom of the third inning where Deckard crossed home plate on a roped single by Dickerman, making it 1-0 Rangers.

Just an inning later, the Rangers put another on the board on a crazy play and heady base running by Jorin Van Amstel who scored all the way from first on two errors by the Bearcat first baseman, making it 2-0 in favor of the home team.

Following a terrific five-inning outing in his collegiate and Ranger debut, Llorente was relieved after giving up no hits, four strikeouts and one run. 

Northwest Missouri started making their way back into it in the top of the sixth when they posted a run, and again in a big seventh inning, putting five more on the board to take a three-run lead off a couple of unlucky breaks, two walks and two hits, making it a 6-3 game.

To add salt to the wound, two more Bearcats crossed home plate in the eighth frame before being ousted on two quality fielding plays by Van Amstel.

NWMSU made some more noise in their final at-bat, but were unable to cash in. The visitors loaded the bases with only one down in the frame, but two-straight outs ended the threat.

The Rangers were unable to produce any offense in the bottom of the ninth, ending the game in an 8-3 defeat.

Up Next

The Ranger baseball team will take the road this coming weekend, where they will travel to Canyon, Texas to take on West Texas A&M in a three-game series. The series scheduled to begin on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. and will conclude on Sunday that's slated for a 1 o'clock start.