ALVA, OKLAHOMA - Northwestern Oklahoma State Baseball opened a three game series against Southern Nazarene on Saturday afternoon with a doubleheader. The Rangers jumped out early, scoring in three straight innings in game one to take a 6-1 lead before closing out the 10-7 win. In game two the Rangers used a strong final seventh inning scoring five runs to walk off and sweep the doubleheader.
After the sweep the Rangers improved to 15-7 on the season with a 7-4 Great American Conference record. Northwestern is now 12-2 in Alva.
GAME ONE:
Carson Wright led the Rangers offense with two hits and 3-RBIs in the win as Trevor Stiles reached base safely three times with a hit and two walks scoring three runs.
Garrett DeHaas pitched a scoreless first inning for the Rangers before Northwestern jumped on the board first with a leadoff single by Dylan Bradford before Paul Sachen drove him in with an RBI double to left field for the 1-0 lead.
After Southern Nazarene tied the game in the top of the second inning Northwestern answered back with a three spot. Started by two walks and a hit batter leading to an RBI ground out by Bradford before an RBI single by Wight gave the Rangers a 3-1 lead. Chad Green followed with an RBI single as Bradford came in to score for a 4-1 lead.
DeHaas had a scoreless third inning before the Rangers extended the lead for a third straight inning. Started with a Trevor Saire walk and a stolen base putting himself in scoring position before two bases loaded walks one by Bradford followed by Wright forced in two runs and a 6-1 lead.Â
Southern Nazarene scored one back in the fourth inning on a solo home run to right field to cut their deficit down to four. Northwestern got the run back in the fifth inning as Stiles walked lead to an RBI single by Carson Wright scoring Trevor Stiles and giving the Rangers a 7-2 lead.Â
Northwestern continued to add on runs in the sixth inning with two runners on Trevor Stiles hit a 2-RBI single to center field scoring Barcello and Grace for the 9-2 lead.Â
In the seventh inning Southern Nazarene struck back with a five spot in the inning. With two runners on, Entwistle got a 2-RBI double, scoring two runs before an RBI single by Martinez pushed another run across the plate for a 9-5 Crimson Storm deficit. They added two more runs both on RBI singles as the Rangers lead was down to 9-7 in the seventh.Â
It remained 9-7 into the eighth inning when Hagen Barcello extended the lead back to three runs on a solo home run to left center field extending the lead to 10-7.Â
Jacob Shaw came into the game in the ninth picking up his fifth save of the season with the game ending on a double play starting at second with Barcello. Northwestern won the series opener 10-7. Garrett DeHaas picked up his first win of the season after throwing six innings.
GAME TWO:
Jacob Fuller started the game with a scoreless first inning working around a one out walk with back to back strikeout to close out the inning. The score did not remain 0-0 for a while as both teams' offense struck in the second inning as after a single and a walk the Crimson Storm had a double from Hudson to take a 1-0 lead. LeMay followed with an RBI single and a 2-0 lead.Â
The Rangers got one back in the bottom of the inning as Hagen Barcello hit a home run, his second one of the afternoon as he hit one in the first game as he cut the Ranger deficit to 2-1.Â
Southern Nazarene had two hits in the third inning but a double play helped Fuller out of the inning keeping the game at 2-1. It stayed that way into the fourth inning when the Crimson Storm added two more runs first on a bases loaded double play ball pushing across a run before a Ranger error allowed the fourth run to score.Â
The game stayed 4-1 all the way into the seventh inning when a triple and a double for the Crimson Storm's Orman pushed the lead to 5-1 for Southern Nazarene over the Rangers.Â
However Northwestern's offense struck in the bottom half of the last inning with five runs to steal the game over Southern Nazarene. With two outs in the ninth Brady Bejarano reached base safely before Dylan Bradford moved him to second with a walk. As the bases were loaded the first run crossed the plate with a Crimson Storm error as Bejarano scored for a 5-2 Ranger deficit.Â
Paul Sachen followed with a 2-RBi single to right field, scoring Wright and Bradford to bring the Rangers within one at 5-4. Colby Graced followed with an RBI single scoring Green to tie the game at five and move Sachen to third on the hit. Sachen later scored on a wild pitch to win the game as the Rangers walked it off on Southern Nazarene stealing the game two win for the doubleheader sweep.Â
Dawson Toborg pitched the final four innings of the game getting the win for the Rangers in the scoring decision.
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