ARKADELPHIA – The Ouachita Baptist University baseball team earned its fifth Great American Conference series victory of the season on Saturday in a double header split with Arkansas-Monticello at home.
Following Ouachita's 15-5 win on Friday in the series opener, UAM (16-18, 11-13 GAC) won Saturday's first game 8-7 in 11 innings, followed by a 3-0 Tiger victory in the finale. Ouachita (23-14, 15-9 GAC) has now won five of its eight GAC series so far this season, holding tight to second place in the league.
To clinch the series, the Tigers relied on the right arm of
Beau Burson (5-2), who earned a complete-game shutout victory, striking out 11 Weevil batters, walking none, and giving up just five hits in the scheduled seven-inning affair. It was Ouachita's first shutout of the 2022 campaign and the first career shutout for Burson.
Offensively in the finale, the Tigers scored all three of their runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, featuring a rare two-RBI sacrifice bunt by
Tallon Heine. With runners on second and third moving on the pitch,
Jaxon Chaney made it all the way home from second base on the UAM throw to first base to retire Heine.
In the first game of the day, UAM pitcher Mason Philley started out by retiring the Ouachita lineup in order in the first three innings before Ouachita broke up the perfect game bid with three runs in the bottom of the fourth to cut its deficit in half. UAM had previously built a 6-0 lead with three runs in the first, two in the third, and one in the fourth.
Ouachita rallied for four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to tie the game at 7-7, highlighted by back-to-back doubles from
Cade Burris and
Jaxon Chaney.
After heading into extras, the Weevils scored the go-ahead and eventual game-winning run on a pinch-hit RBI single by Orlando Arevalo, which earned him a start in the finale. He went 0-for-3 in game three with two strikeouts.
The Tigers are on the road next week with a midweek stop at Southern Arkansas on Tuesday and a three-game GAC set in Durant, Oklahoma next weekend against Southeastern Oklahoma State.
