Arkadelphia, Ark. - Ouachita baseball falls to the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith 8-7 in a well fought home opener.

Adam Bahloul started on the mound for the Tigers in the matchup against UASF. Bahloul pitched for six innings, had five total strikeouts, and gave up three earned runs on eight hits. The opening inning for both teams was quiet as both sides were unable to get any offense going.

In the bottom of the second inning Bo Sutton hit a single to right field. Sutton would score the first run of the game off of a single to left field by Hunter Gautreaux. In the top of the third inning the Lions would get their first hit off of a single up the middle, but would not be able to take advantage of the runner on base as they would not add any runs to the board.

In the top of the fourth inning UAFS would put up three total runs, coming off of four hits to take the lead over Ouachita 3-1. The Tigers would not be able to answer back any runs in the bottom of the fourth and the score remained 3-1 as the gamed headed into the fifth inning.

Things began to pick up offensively when Ouachita headed into the bottom of the fifth inning. Pierce Mitchum and Chris Willard would be walked back to back, and Louis Steen would be hit by a pitch which led to the bases being loaded with Sophomore Tyler Riebock up to hit. Riebock already had two homeruns on the season going into the game, and would get his third as he smashed a grand slam over the right field wall to give the Tigers a 5-3 lead.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Logan Honeycutt would put up another run for Ouachita off of a single to left center by Pierce Mitchum to put the Tigers up 6-3 at the end of the sixth inning. Logan Honeycutt would score another run, unearned, in the bottom of the eighth off of a another single from Pierce Mitchum.

Heading into the final inning of play, Ouachita was up on UAFS 7-3. However, the Lions would score five total unearned runs in the top of the ninth to take the lead over Ouachita. The Tigers would try and win the game in the bottom of the ninth, but would come up short and fall in the home opener to UAFS 8-7.

The game against UAFS was the first of a double header on Friday where the Tigers faced off against Missouri Western State University following the Northwest Missouri State University and SAU game at Henderson. The Tigers will have a quick turnaround as they return to action against Northwest Missouri State University  on Saturday February 9 at 1:00 P.M. at Rob Rodgers field.