HOUSTON, Texas - The Arkansas Tech baseball team opened up their 2024 season at Minute Maid Park in Houston on Friday as part of the Houston Winter Invitational, hosted by Central Missouri. In that opening game, the Wonder Boys faced preseason No. 3-ranked University of Tampa and lost to the Spartans 17-5 in seven innings.
Playing as the visitors on the scoreboard, Tampa scored a pair of runs in the first inning off Tech starter John Gray. Despite the two runs off Gray, the right-hander had a pair of strikeouts in the first. In the bottom of the inning, the Wonder Boys got their first batter to reach base as Cole Dawson was hit-by-a-pitch, but nothing was able to come of it as the Tampa starter retired the next three batters.
The Spartans added two more runs in the top of the second with both scoring without the benefit of a hit. An inning later, following a 1-2-3 bottom of the second, Tampa put together a big inning with eight runs crossing the plate. They would add two more in the fourth to go up 14-0.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Wonder Boys broke through against the Spartans and scored three runs on a pair of hits. The big blow in the inning was a three-run home run over the railroad tracks in left field off the bat of Logan Schwenke. Prior to the bomb, Keaton Ranallo reached on a one-out throwing error by the Spartan's shortstop. Two batters later, Christian Olea singled to right field to set the stage for Schwenke.
The Wonder Boys would then go on to add single runs in the fifth and sixth innings while holding the Spartans scoreless. The run in the fifth was scored a sacrifice fly off the bat of Nick Jones. Scoring on that play was Brandon Bunton as he led off the inning with a single to left field. He then stole second and third ahead of Jones' at-bat.
The run in the sixth came on a double to left-centerfield by Shane Poe, who was pinch-hitting. Scoring on Poe's double was Harper Huang, who was also pinch-hitting in the inning and led off with a hit-by-pitch.
In the top of the seventh, the Spartans tacked on three runs to bring the game to its final score of 17-5.
The Wonder Boys will now prepare for their second game of the weekend on Saturday afternoon against St. Cloud State. First-pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. from Minute Maid Park.
