ALVA, Okla. – Northwestern Oklahoma State University baseball has opened the season 4-0 for the second time in as many seasons as the Rangers blanked Fort Hays State, 8-0, on a cold day at Myers Stadium.
Tuesday's contest was the first of five straight against Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) members. Saturday the Rangers will travel to play a doubleheader at Missouri Southern State, followed by a single game on Sunday, before returning home to take on Northeastern State next Tuesday.
The Northwestern pitching staff has been effective through the first four games of the season, pitching a shutout in consecutive games for the first time since the opening series of the 2015 season.
Harry Park (1-0) got the start in the midweek contest against the Tigers and allowed three hits in four scoreless innings to get the win. Baron Phillips entered in the fifth inning and struck out four in three innings of work.
Beau Britton, Jacob Uhing and Kaleb Honea each made appearances in the game on the mound.
Only hours after being named the Great American Conference Co-Player of the Week, Carlos Andujar collected hits in his first two at bats of the game. His second, coming in the third inning, pushed across a run to put the Rangers on the board for the first time.
Northwestern broke the game open in the home half of the fourth when Jake White was plunked with the bases loaded to push across a run, followed by Luis Mendoza scoring on a groundout to make it 3-0.
The highlight of the game came on the following at bat as Brock Randels, standing on third after reaching earlier in the inning on a hit by pitch, took off and scored for a stolen base for the fourth run of the game.
Northwestern stole six bases in the game, including three from Daschal Johnson and one each by Randels, Luis Mendoza and Johnuelle Ponce.
Ponce drove in his seventh run of the season in the seventh inning on a ground out. After Greg Carrington scored the bases loaded in the eighth on a Jake Darrow sacrifice fly, Johnson and Luis Cintron delivered back-to-back singles up the middle to drive in runs for the eventual output.
Cintron led all batters with a 3-for-4 day at the plate with an RBI and a run scored. Johnson, Andujar, Ponce and Mendoza all finished with a pair of hits.
The Northwestern offense has had 10-plus hits in each game this season.
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