BETHANY, Okla. – Northwestern Oklahoma State University baseball completed its second season sweep of the season in a big way Saturday afternoon at Southern Nazarene. The Rangers battled the elements for a 13-2 win in the first game and an 18-1 dominating victory in the seven-inning second game.
Northwestern improved to 10-1 this season, the best start by a Ranger baseball team since 2005, and 3-0 Great American Conference play. The Rangers will not have a mid-week contest this week, so they will return to action next Friday evening for their conference home opener against Oklahoma Baptist.
The first of the three-game set against the Bison is scheduled for a 6 p.m. first pitch at Glass Family Field at Myers Stadium.
Saturday's game two win was the largest margin of victory since an 18-1 win over Manhattan Christian (Kan.) in 2010.
Colton Whitehouse had a huge afternoon at the plate with seven hits in eight at bats in the two games. He finished with a home run, two doubles, four runs batted in and six runs scored. The redshirt junior upped his average to .538 this season.
Not to be overshadowed by the bats in the night cap, Dillon Van Oosbree had a dominating performance on the mound as he went all seven innings and allowed just one hit and struck out five. Van Oosbree improved to 2-0 on the season.
Game 1
After a few games where the Northwestern bats were doing the small things to score runs, they came alive in the first game of the doubleheader with five home runs and two doubles. Marques Paige had his first two home runs as a Ranger as he hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning.
Paige also added an RBI single up the middle in the sixth inning to score Whitehouse. Both Paige and Whitehouse had four hits in five at bats in game one. Harrison Hull followed Paige's steps and delivered a single up the middle later in the inning to make it 5-2.
Justin Bundy hit a three-run homer in the top of the fourth to break a scoreless tie for his fourth of the season, and Ponce went yard for the first two runs in a six-run in ninth inning for the Rangers. Northwestern closed the scoring in the first game when Brock Randels scored on a wild pitch for the 13-2 total.
Daschal Johnson, Luis Mendoza, Bundy and Hull each had two hits in the doubleheader opener.
Kyle Rogers got the win for the Rangers in his first start of the season as he allowed two runs in the five innings and struck out six Crimson Storm batters. Jacob Uhing continues to pitch well out of the bullpen after allowing just one hit in the final four innings of the game.
Game 2
After the Rangers went down in order in the first inning, they responded with three runs in the second when Randels drew a four pitch walk with the bases loaded, followed by a Johnson two-run single that scored Paige and Jake White.
The Crimson Storm did their best to get something going with a run in the bottom half of the second, but the Rangers exploded with an 11-spot in the top half of the third.
The big inning was highlighted by a big three-run shot from Whitehouse that followed a Bundy RBI single to make it 7-1. Johnson, Mendoza and Ponce had RBI singles in the third, Luis Cintron crossed the plate on a wild pitch, and Paige doubled to right center to bring home two Rangers.
Bryce Donovan, who has pitched for the Rangers this season, made his first plate appearances in the second game of the day and added an RBI single down the left field line in the fifth.
In both the sixth and seventh innings, Randels went yard on Crimson Storm pitchers for his first two home runs of the season. Greg Carrington also made his mark on the game in the sixth inning with his first RBI of the season.
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