BETHANY, Okla. – Northwestern Oklahoma State's baseball team took the road to the suburb of Oklahoma City for a Great American Conference series with Southern Nazarene and in game one came away with a dominating 18-8 mercy rule victory.
 
Earning the start for the Rangers on the afternoon was Bryce Tomlin who went five full innings and took home the W, following an 8K outing.
 
The Black-and-Red collected 17 hits in the contest with six Rangers earning multi-hit games. Leading the way for the guests were two batters in Arturo Castro (3-for-5, HR) and Pat Delano (3-for-5, 2 HR's). The other four Rangers to have two hits were Jacob Long, Cooper Stanley, Daschal Johnson and TJ Kassner.
 
Northwestern started off the game with a zero on the board in the top of the first, but came alive in the second as Castro reached on a single. Following the single, Delano came up with his fourth homer of the season and he was followed up with a homerun by Kassner to make it 3-0.
 
The Crimson Storm didn't let the Rangers stay in the lead for long after the big inning, plating three runs of their own in the bottom frame on a homer and triple to tie it up at three.
 
The top of the third would see another run by the visitors as Castro would earn his second straight single, which scored Long in the process.
 
For the second consecutive inning, SNU tied it up, this time on a SAC fly to centerfield. The run knotted up the score again at four apiece.
 
In the Ranger frame of the fourth inning, Northwestern would gain a run on the board for the third straight inning as Johnson crossed on an RBI groundout to the shortstop by Dickerman to make it a one-run contest in favor of the guests.
 
After taking a one-run lead in the fourth, Tomlin sat the hosts down in order, maintaining the advantage at 5-4.
 
The Rangers had another large inning in the top of five, following a double by Stanley who scored Douglas. The double by Stanley was immediately followed up by a laced two-run jack by Castro to bring the Northwestern advantage to 8-4.
 
Tomlin was solid for his second straight frame, going 1-2-3, which helped in maintaining momentum for the Black-and-Red.
 
The momentum was certainly capitalized on in the top of the sixth as two more runs crossed the plate for the visitors. The two plated Rangers made it a six-run commanding lead at 10-4.
 
In the bottom half of six however, the Crimson Storm posted another run early on, knocking out Tomlin in the process.
 
Matthew Bickford came on in relief for the Rangers in the inning and allowed two runs to be plated for SNU, bringing the count to 10-7, with the advantage still with the Rangers.
 
In the top of the seventh inning, Delano, bombed his second homerun of the game to make it 11-7. The rally continued however as a triple by Carrington scored three more, making it a large 14-7 advantage. That wouldn't be the end of the scoring for the Rangers however as they would plate one more to finish off the top half of seven.
 
Southern Nazarene put up another score on the board, but it would leave the deficit at seven.
 
Kassner again pushed it back to an eight-run game though in the very next at bat, doubling to centerfield, scoring Delano on the play who previously reached on a single.
 
The Kassner double wouldn't end the inning as Dickerman raked the fifth Ranger homer of the game to score two more on the dinger. The three-run inning pushed the lead to 10 at 18-8.
 
Bickford allowed two runners in the inning, but he was able to get out of the jam, leading to the mercy-rule 10-run game.
 
UP NEXT
 
Northwestern and Southern Nazarene will meet up again tomorrow afternoon for the series doubleheader beginning at noon in Bethany.