ADA, Okla. - Northwestern Oklahoma State baseball took the field for the final game of the series with East Central on Saturday morning and would come up with a big win 11-6.
Starting on the bump for the Rangers in his first collegiate start was redshirt freshman,
Brandon Nesseralla who went a stellar six innings, surrendering just two runs on five hits.
As an offensive unit, the Rangers were hot at the dish this afternoon as seven batters all reached base on hits and collecting 14 as a whole.
Jacob Long and
Jorin Van Amstel led the way for Northwestern however as they each collected three hits apiece.
East Central drew first blood in the contest on a wild pitch in the bottom of the first inning, while the Rangers were shut down in three straight batters.
The visitors threatened in the top of the second, getting two men on board, but were unable to plate any runs, but they would cash in some runs in the third.
Two big hits in the top of the third got the Ranger offense going as Carrington started things off with a bunt, moving Kane to second in the process. In the next at-bat Long would smoke a single to right field and it would skip under the rightfielder's legs and travel to the wall, scoring Carrington and Kane. Long would then cross the plate on a balk by the Tiger hurler, making it a 3-1 Northwestern advantage.
The Tigers would get on the board again in the bottom half of three with one run, but the Rangers erased it immediately and added another on top of it, making it a 5-2 visitor lead.
The top of the fifth was a big one for the Rangers as well, putting three more on the board on two singles and an error by the Tigers' pitcher and first baseman. Following the three-run frame for the visitors, they would stretch the lead to six at 8-2.
Northwestern would tack on another run in the top of the seventh to make it a commanding 10-2 lead and the lead would remain at eight through the bottom half of the inning, following a three-batter shut down inning by
Matthew Bickford who came on in relief for Nesseralla.
For the sixth straight inning, the Black-and-Red added another run to their side of the board, making it 11-2. The Rangers also held the hosts to their fifth straight open frame in the bottom of eight.
The final Tiger at bat would belong to
David Sanchez who struggled to get outs for a good part of the inning, allowing four to cross the plate, but he would recover and a fly out to Carrington ended the inning and the game in the Rangers' favor.
UP NEXT
Northwestern will host Northeastern State Monday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Glass Family Field at Myers Stadium before taking the road next weekend to Monticello, Ark. to clash with the Boll Weevils of Arkansas-Monticello.
