ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – The Northwestern Oklahoma State baseball team won both games of their doubleheader against Henderson State on Saturday to win the series over the Reddies for the first time since 2021. The wins move the Rangers to 22-21 on the season and 13-14 in Great American Conference play.

Game 1
Henderson State jumped out to an early 1-0 lead at the end of the second inning, but the Ranger bats came to life in the top of the fourth with Blake Mattern getting the first hit of the game with a double down the left field line before moving to third base on a wild pitch. Chase Gordon leveled the game at 1-1 with a single, and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Cole Barton. Jailon Goodfellow put the Rangers on top by blasting a double to left center field to give Northwestern a 2-1 lead.

The Reddies tacked on a run in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game at 2-2, but the Rangers struck again in the eighth with a walk from Alex Dabrowski and back-to-back singles from Mattern and Gordon to load the bases. Joel Lindahl gave Northwestern the lead on a two-RBI infield single to put the Rangers ahead 4-2 before moving to second on a balk. Matthew Bailey drew a walk to load the bases for the second time in the inning, but the Rangers could not capitalize.

Northwestern kept doing damage in the ninth, as Brody Harris started the inning with a leadoff double while Dabrowski got hit by a pitch and Mattern drew a walk to get the bases full of Rangers for the third time in the last two innings. Goodfellow hammered a double to right field to clear the bases and extend Northwestern's lead to give the Rangers a 7-2 win.

Mattern, Gordon, and Goodfellow all had two hits each, while Goodfellow led in RBI with four. Logan Sandoval struck out eight batters and pitched all nine innings for his seventh win of the season and his fifth complete game of the season.

Game 2
The Rangers and Reddies started the second game of the day with a scoreless struggle, as they had a combined three hits in the first three innings. That quickly changed in the top of the fourth, as Goodfellow smacked a double down the left field line and Lindahl hit another double to put Northwestern on the board with a 1-0 lead.

Jason McCarty and Barton got hit by pitches, and Lindahl raced home on a wild pitch to extend the Ranger advantage to 2-0. The Rangers were not done yet, as Harris got hit by a pitch and Bailey brought home two more runs by hitting into a fielder's choice to give Northwestern a 4-0 lead.

Henderson State plated a run in the bottom of the fourth, but the Rangers pushed the lead back to four in the fifth inning with a walk from Mattern and double from Gordon. The Ranger offense stayed hot in the sixth, as Barton belted a double to left center field, Bailey got hit by a pitch, and Dabrowski singled to get the bases loaded. Mattern brought Barton home on a sacrifice fly to move Northwestern's lead to 6-1, and helped give the Rangers their first series win over the Reddies since 2021 and their first series win in Arkadelphia since 2018.

Dabrowski led in hits with two, while four different Rangers each had an RBI.

The Rangers will be back in action on April 14, when they travel to David Allen Memorial Ballpark in Enid to take on Southern Nazarene at 7 p.m.

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