SEARCY, ARKANSAS - Northwestern Oklahoma State Baseball completed the final game of their three game series with a 10-1 victory. The Red-and-Black used two five run innings to build first a 5-0 lead before extending it to the final score for the victory.
The win improves the Rangers to 18-23 and an 11-16 GAC record. Harding falls to 24-15 and 15-12 in conference play.
Brayden Koenig led the Ranger offense with a 3-RBI afternoon. He was tied with five other players with a team high two hits with Brett Erickson, Yugo Hamakawa, Brandon Holdren, Shaughn Kelly. Kelly and Hamakawa finished with 2-RBI's each.
Emilio Lovato took the ball in the series finale against Harding throwing seven innings allowing one unearned run with four strikeouts. Connor Gibson pitched in relief, throwing the final two innings of the ball game getting the last six outs scoreless striking out one.
Harding's pitching started strongly, setting the Rangers down in order to start the game. Lovato worked around two Ranger errors in the first to keep the game tied 0-0. In the second inning both teams put a runner on first Koenig reaching on an error Harding hitting a single but both pitching kept the game tied at zero.
The third inning the Rangers left one on base after Hayden Priest reached on a strikeout wild pitch. Lovato worked around back to back singles for the Bisons in the bottom half of the inning but Harding could not score.
Northwestern broke through in the fourth inning after Hamakawa hit a leadoff single to get the inning started. Holdren followed with an RBI double to right center field plating the game's first run and a Rangers 1-0 lead.
After a Blake Hoffman single Kelly had the Rangers fourth straight hit as he hit an RBI single scoring Holdren.
Koenig continued the rally for the Rangers as a 2-RBI single plated two more runs and the fourth of the inning for a 4-0 lead. Joseph Frisby joined the hit parade with an RBI single giving the Rangers a 5-0 lead through four innings.
The Bisons offense grabbed a run back in the fifth inning after a two-out single followed by a catcher's interference pushed first and second leading to an RBI single by Witzke to cut the Ranger lead to 5-1.
Rangers tried to get the run back in their half of the sixth inning with an error followed by a Fred Buckson double but they would be left on base as Harding escaped the inning with the score still 5-1. The seventh inning Lovato gave up a two-out double but was able to escape with no damage done.
Gibson threw in relief in the eighth inning, throwing a scoreless frame before the Rangers broke the game open in the ninth. Frisby and Erickson singled in the ninth before a single by Hamakawa plated two runs for a 7-1 Ranger lead.
Later in the ninth inning with two outs Koenig singled to right field scoring Hoffman as the Ranger lead grew to 9-1 before an RBI single by priest pushed the Northwestern lead to 10-1 before Gibson closed out the game with a scoreless ninth inning after allowing a leadoff double as the Rangers close out the 10-1 victory.
Northwestern will play two non-conference games this week against Emporia State and Rogers state before returning to conference play at home against Arkansas Tech on April 22nd.
