JOPLIN, Mo. - The 2024 Arkansas Tech baseball season came to an end on Friday afternoon at the NCAA Division II Baseball Central Region Tournament as the No. 3-seed Wonder Boys lost to No. 7-seed Harding by a score of 3-2.
In the game, Harding jumped out to an early 1-0 lead with a run in the bottom of the first. The Wonder Boys tied things with a run in the top of the third on a RBI single through the right side from Logan Schwenke. In the at-bat prior, Grant Jones got things going with a two-out double down the left field line.
Harding would regain the lead in their next trip to the plate and scored a pair of runs on a two-run home run. That would be last runs Harding would score in the game as the Wonder Boys pitching efforts from starter Jack Rector and relievers Will Horton and Mason Griffin held the Bisons scoreless over their final five offensive innings.
For Horton, the appearance was the 30th of his senior season and the 81st of his career. Both of those are now second-most in Tech Baseball history.
In the sixth, the Wonder Boys put together a rally in which they scored a run and had the potential tying run on third before Harding managed to escape the inning with the lead intact. Jones started that inning off with a leadoff walk and quickly made third in the next at-bat as Schwenke hit a double down the right field line. Nick Jones then drove in G. Jones on a sacrifice line drive to left.
The Wonder Boys would threaten again in the seventh with the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position, but once more, Harding was able to escape the jam. The Bisons would go on to retire the Wonder Boys in order in the eighth and ninth innings to secure the win.
With the season coming to an end, the Wonder Boys' 2024 season saw the program win their 2nd-most games in season (38), set a record for pitching strikeouts (461) and had the 3rd-lowest ERA (4.39) while playing/pitching the most innings (486.1).
