ENID, OKLAHOMA - Northwestern Oklahoma State baseball opened conference tournament play on Thursday afternoon against Southern Arkansas. In a pitcher's duel between the two teams Southern Arkansas was able to score two runs late in the eighth inning to take a 3-1 lead before closing out the win over the Rangers.
The Rangers drop to 30-21 on the season following the loss with the first loss in the double elimination tournament.
Connor Green led the team in hitting with three hits in three at bats for the Rangers. Carson Wright had a hit and a run scored. Chase Gordon had the Rangers RBI with a single. Will Kates pitched 6.1 innings striking out two allowing a run.
Northwestern looked to score early loading the bases in the first inning but Southern Arkansas was able to escape the jam on Adorno pitching to a fly out. The Muleriders had one base runner in the inning but were held scoreless.
Southern Arkansas struck first in the bottom of the second inning after a single and a stolen base led to an RBI single by Roosma for the game's first run and an early 1-0 lead for Southern Arkansas.
Rangers did not trail for long as in the top of the third inning a leadoff single by Carson Wright and Connor Green led to a Chase Gordon RBI single to left field to tie the score at 1-1.
Northwestern's defense made a handful of big plays to keep the game at 1-1 starting with the fourth inning when Harley Shaffer made a diving catch on a line drive up the middle.
Rangers had two runners on in the sixth but left them on base as the game stayed 1-1 into the bottom of the inning. Southern Arkansas after a Rangers throwing error had a runner on third back to back ground outs got the Rangers out of the jam keeping it tied 1-1.
In the sixth inning Trevor Saire saved extra bases on a fly out to deep left center field making a leaping catch at the wall to keep the leadoff runner off the bases.
It was in the eighth inning when Southern Arkansas struck for the final two runs of the game. The first two outs of the inning on a strikeout and a fly out before a single and a hit batter setup the 2-RBI double scoring two runs for the 3-1 lead.
Southern Arkansas closed out the 3-1 victory over the Rangers with a perfect ninth inning to seal the win.
The Rangers will next play on Friday afternoon with a scheduled first pitch of 1:00 PM against the losing team between Henderson State and Arkansas Monticello.
