ALVA, OKLAHOMA - Northwestern Oklahoma State Baseball closed out their season series against Oklahoma Panhandle State Tuesday afternoon with a 5-2 victory over the Aggies. The Rangers jumped out early with five runs in the opening two innings to take a five run lead before closing out the win.
The win pushes the Rangers record to 21-11 on the season as the conference record remains 11-7. The Rangers move to 16-4 on the season at home.
Northwestern finished the game with seven pitchers throwing scoreless innings striking out nine Aggies hitters in the win as Justin Dunlap faced three hitters striking out all three. Ben Brown had the win while Shafer Glasscock got the save.
Paul Sachen led the team on offense with two hits, two runs batted in and a run scored. Hagen Barcello tied Sachen with two runs batted in.
Brown, who had the start for the Rangers, struck out the lead-off hitter before shutting down the inning allowing the Rangers to jump out for the early lead. Carson Wright walked followed by a Sachen double for two runners on before a Barcello double down the left field line scored both runs for the early 2-0 lead. Theron Perkins followed with a double down the left field line and a 3-0 lead over the Aggies.
Oklahoma Panhandle State had an opportunity to strike back as the Aggies loaded the bases in the top of the second inning before Cade Phelps struck out the final hitter of the inning for a scoreless second.
The Rangers extended the lead in the second inning as Dylan Bradford singled and stole second leading to a Paul Sachen 2-RBI single as Jacob Wiltshire and Bradford came around to score for the 5-0 lead after two innings of play.
Oklahoma Panhandle State got one run back in the third inning as a single by Arrieta eventually led to an RBI single by Garcia. After the first three runners reached safely two strikeouts by Myles McDermott helped keep the Aggies to one run.
The Aggies got one more run back in the fourth inning on a solo home run to right field by Kusumoto as the Rangers lead was cut to 5-2. Rangers had a base runner in the fourth inning but were unable to score.
In the sixth inning as the Rangers looked to extend the lead got a leadoff single before being advanced to second by Zach Vetal, but the Aggies escaped with no damage done.
The eighth inning Dunlap came in facing three hitters and striking out all three for a scoreless inning. The ninth the Aggies had a double by Arrieta but a ground out to end the game helped the Rangers to a 5-2 victory on Tuesday afternoon.
Northwestern returns to play over the weekend for a conference series against Southeastern Oklahoma State in Durant, Oklahoma for three games.
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