SHAWNEE, Okla. - The Arkansas Tech baseball team suffered a loss in the final at-bat of their Great American Conference opener on the road at Oklahoma Baptist on Saturday night, falling by a score of 7-6 in 11 innings.
In the game, the Wonder Boys jumped out to a 4-0 lead through three and a half innings of play with a single run in the first and three in the fourth. The run in the first scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Christian Olea, which scored Shane Poe, who led off with a double to centerfield. In the fourth, Olea sparked what was a three-run inning with a leadoff single to left-centerfield.
Two batters later, the bases were loaded with no outs as Keaton Ranallo singled to left while Nick Jones drew a walk. Logan Schwenke then hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Olea. After the second out of the inning, Brendyn Bard singled home Ranallo and Jones.
The Bison had an answer in the bottom of the fourth, however, and scored three runs themselves to make it a 4-3 game. After holding Tech scoreless in the top of the fifth, Oklahoma Baptist took the lead in the bottom half with three more runs on the strength of a three-run home run.
Now trailing by a pair of runs, the Wonder Boys got one of those runs back in the top of the seventh on a two-out RBI single through the left side by Ranallo. An inning later, the Wonder Boys tied the game at six-all on a leadoff solo home run off the bat of Schwenke.
That score held through the regulation nine innings of action as the game played on into extra-innings.
Both teams were retired in order in the 10th, and then Tech had a man in scoring position with one out in the top of the 11th, but nothing came of it. In the bottom of the inning, the Bison were able to turn a leadoff walk into the winning run four batters later.
The Wonder Boys used four pitchers in the game with the majority of the work being turned in by starter John Gray and Grant Shahan, who was first in relief. Gray pitched into the fifth inning before being relieved by Shahan.
Shahan was sharp out of the 'pen and got the game to the 11th with a total of 5.2 innings of work. In his time on the mound, Shahan would scatter three hits, walked three and struck out eight while allowing no runs.
The Wonder Boys and Bison will conclude their three-game series on Sunday with a doubleheader starting at Noon.
