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Wonder Boys complete sweep; claim share of GAC regular season championship

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RUSSELLVILLE — With so many scenarios left on the table heading into the weekend, the Arkansas Tech baseball team took care of the only one they could control and that was winning both ends of the doubleheader against Southeastern Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon to complete the series sweep.

With that in-hand, the Wonder Boys (26-14, 23-10 GAC) turned to scoreboard watching as they needed Northwestern Oklahoma to beat Southern Arkansas in the series finale between the two in order for Tech to earn a share of the Great American Conference Regular Season Championship with SAU. The scoreboard watching of that game between the Muleriders and Rangers was not for the faint of heart as the game featured a combined 37 runs on 45 hits and a mind-boggling 15 home runs.

Fortunately for the Wonder Boys, the Rangers hit three of the final four home runs in the game and turned a 17-15 deficit in the eighth inning into a 19-17 lead heading into the final inning. SAU collected the final home run of the game to lead off the ninth inning, but the Rangers were able to seal the deal and held off the Muleriders, 19-18.

In addition to giving the Wonder Boys a share of the GAC Regular Season Championship, the result of the NWOSU-SAU bash vaulted the Wonder Boys to the top-seed in the upcoming GAC Tournament as they took two-of-three from SAU earlier in the season. As the No. 1-seed, the Wonder Boys will now host a home playoff game against No. 8-seed Southwestern Oklahoma on Friday, May 17 out at Baswell Field. First-pitch time is to be determined.

As far as the doubleheader went for the Wonder Boys on Saturday, the offense was on full display and the pitching was just as dominant as it was in the opener on Friday. Across the two games, the Wonder Boys combined for 23 runs on 28 hits. They also had 14-extra base hits with seven going as doubles and seven leaving the ballpark.

Individually, Jonathon Arrieta and Trace Maddux hit a pair of home runs on Saturday and each time they went back-to-back. The sequence started with Maddux hitting a three-run home run out to right field each time, which was then followed by solo home runs by Arrieta, with each of his going to opposite gaps.

Josh Detweiler, Evan Hafley and Garrett Crews all hit home runs in the doubleheader as well.

On the mound, the Wonder Boys limited the Savage Storm (17-22, 13-20 GAC) to just seven hits in 14.0 innings played. The Savage Storm did manage five runs on Saturday.

In the opener, Riyan Rodriguez pitched a complete-game and allowed just one run on two hits in 7.0 innings of work in the run-rule shortened game. In the second game, the Wonder Boys tossed a quartet of arms that limited SE to four runs on five hits in the game. All four runs scored in the top of third on softly-hit ball in the shallow outfield.



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