RUSSELLVILLE, Arkansas – The Ouachita Baptist University softball team used a big inning and some solid late-game defense to hold off a Golden Sun rally and defeat Arkansas Tech 6-5.
The final game of the weekend started with both teams putting up zeroes in their respective halves of the first inning. But in the second inning, the Tigers offense woke up and plated five runs, which was the most the Tigers had scored in total since scoring six against SWOSU on February 24. The runs started with a Lacy Ornelas RBI single that scored Hope Johnson from second to get the Tigers on the board. Hope Waid doubled a few batters later to score Shelby Smith to make it 2-0 Tigers. Jessalyn Ahrens crossed home on an error on a ball hit by Erin Williams to put the Tigers up 3-0. Then, Waid came home on a wild pitch to increase the Tigers' lead to four. The fifth run came from a Callie Jourdan sacrifice fly that scored Williams to put the Tigers up 5-0 after two innings. Ouachita added another run in the third inning on an RBI single from Waid that scored Smith for the second time to make it 6-0 Tigers.
Then the Golden Suns started a comeback. Arkansas Tech managed to score five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to make it just a one-run ballgame with three innings left to play. The fifth inning saw the Tigers get three baserunners but were unable to add to their lead. Ouachita forced Tech to go three-up-three-down on a strikeout and two groundouts in the bottom half. Tech threatened in the bottom of the sixth inning with bases loaded and two outs, but Tuesday Melton struck out the next batter to preserve the Tigers' lead. The Tiger defense again forced a perfect inning in the bottom of the seventh to secure the 6-5 win over the Golden Suns. The win snapped a seven-game losing streak for the Tigers.
The Tigers will look to build on their momentum as they make the long trip across highway seven to take on rival Henderson State University on Tuesday, March 14 at HSU.
