BETHANY, Okla. – For the second time in as many games the Northwestern Oklahoma State University baseball team put 11 runs on the board as the Rangers completed an 11-5 outcome over Southern Nazarene in the Great American Conference opener.
Despite temperatures near the freezing mark in Bethany, Oklahoma, the Ranger bats remained hot with a season high 18 hits. Four Ranger hitters had multi-hit games, and four Rangers recorded extra base hits.
Johnnuelle Ponce had an outstanding afternoon with a 4-for-5 day at the plate with three runs batted in and scored two times. Luis Cintron had three hits, including a homerun, two RBI's and a pair of runs, and Colton Whitehouse had a three hit ballgame as well.
Tanner Rutledge has his first extra-base hit of his career with a triple to right in a pinch hit at bat in the eighth inning.
Picking up the win on the mound for the Rangers was starting pitcher Matt Goertzen. The bats gave the senior room to work early as he allowed two runs and struck out three in five innings. Baron Phillips pitched 1.2 innings in relief, and Koby Spicer ended the game with 2.1 innings pitched and one hit allowed.
The Rangers and Crimson Storm will play the doubleheader portion of their conference series tomorrow afternoon, with first pitch for game one scheduled for noon. The Rangers are seeking their ninth straight series victory.
Cintron started the scoring early for the Rangers with a solo home run out to first in the top of the first. In the third, the Rangers added two more runs when Ponce drove in Daschal Johnson and Whitehouse reached on an infield single that pushed across Ponce.
In the top half of the fourth inning, the Rangers plated six runs on a five hits. Cintron started the offensive burst when he drove in Jake White who led the inning off by drawing a walk. Mendoza followed with an RBI groundout to score Brock Randels.
After Johnson came across on a wild pitch, Ponce doubled to right center to plate Cintron to make it 7-1 Rangers. However, Northwestern wasn't finished as they welcomed a new Storm pitcher to the game with back-to-back singles by Justin Bundy and Whitehouse. Bundy ultimately came on home a groundout off the bat of Margues Paige to end the big inning and take the game to the fifth with a 9-1 difference.
Northwestern stretched its advantage to 11-1 in the fifth inning when Randels led the inning off with a double, and moved to second on an error, before reaching home on a Luis Mendoza sacrifice fly. Ponce stepped in and singled in the next at bat to score Johnson.
Southern Nazarene did they best to chip away at the Ranger lead with a run in the fifth, two in the sixth and another run in the seventh. That's when Spicer entered the game to get out of a bases loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh to hold the Storm to five runs.
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