ADA, Okla. - Northwestern Oklahoma State took the road this weekend to East Central to take on the Tigers for the fourth conference series of the year. Northwestern would drop the first of Friday's doubleheader, 6-0 and the second 4-3.

Four Rangers were solid at the plate on the afternoon led by Pat Delano who was 3-for-4 at the dish. Jorin Van Amstel (.333), Arturo Castro (.286) and Nathan Kane (.250) were the other three to have multiple hit games in the two-game day.

Game One

Starting on the mound for the Rangers was freshman, Sean Rydell who would go five innings in his first start of the season, but would unfortunately end up with the loss on the outing.

Pat Delano was the leading hitter for the Rangers, going a solid 2-for-3 at the plate, while five other batters in Kane, Carrington, Long, Van Amstel and Castro had the other five.

Following a three-up three-down inning for the Rangers in the top of one, the Tigers came out in their first at bat and posted a run on an error by Northwestern.

The top of the second was a little different for the visitors as they would load the bases full of Rangers, but they would all be left on board, following a heads up play at the plate, ending the threat. Following the end of the second, ECU maintained a one-run lead.

The Tigers would come up one half inning later and have an identical inning as the Rangers, leaving the bases juiced, keeping the score at 1-0, but the next inning would be a big one for the home team.

After an empty fourth inning for the Black-and-Red, the hosts would start the offense and tag the young Ranger hurler for five runs, making it a 6-0 contest.

For the second straight inning, Northwestern would leave runners on base with no runs crossing the plate, but Nick Llorente would come in to pitch for the visitors and get a shut-down inning, going one, two, three in the bottom of the sixth.

Northwestern would threaten again in the top of the seventh, but again would come away empty, leaving the game at 6-0, which is where the score would remain as the Tigers took game one of the three-game series.

Game Two

Bryce Tomlin would begin the second game of the day on the hill for Northwestern and would go six full innings, and surrendered three runs in the outing.

Only four hits were collected in the second game of the afternoon as Kane, Van Amstel, Castro and Delano all reached base on a hit.

East Central started out game two like the first of the day, with a one-run lead on two hits and a SAC fly to centerfield. They would leave a runner stranded however.

The Rangers came up empty in their first three at bats, and unfortunately the Tigers did not as they plated two more runs in the bottom of the third, making it a 3-0 lead.

Northwestern wasn't going to let that lead stand long however as they posted three on the board in the top of the fourth to make it an even 3-3 game. Long was able to get on base following an error on the third baseman and was advanced in the very next at bat as Van Amstel singled to left. 

Another error followed on a sharply hit ground ball to the shortstop, scoring Long on the play. Van Amstel and Castro would also come around in the inning to make it a tie ballgame.

Following a rough third inning for Tomlin, he came up clean in the next three innings with no runs crossing before giving way to Brandon Nesseralla in the seventh.

The last at bat for the Tigers would do in the Rangers as ECU would score the go-ahead and winning run on a passed ball to take the game 4-3.

UP NEXT

Northwestern and East Central will collide tomorrow morning for the final game of the series at 10 a.m.