BETHANY, Oklahoma – The 30th-ranked Ouachita Baptist University baseball team earned its eighth Great American Conference series victory of the season with a pair of wins over Southern Nazarene University on Friday by final scores of 6-3 and 8-1.
Ouachita moves to 33-12 overall and 21-8 in GAC games, matching last season's overall win total and eclipsing last season's GAC win total to set a new school record in conference wins.
Another record fell in Friday's wins with
Dustin Bermudez setting the program's new single-season mark for saves with his 10th of the year in the game one victory over SNU (15-30, 6-23 GAC).
Ouachita had a slow start in game one offensively, coming up empty in the first three innings. SNU broke the scoreless tie with a pair of solo homeruns in the bottom of the third inning, but the Tigers answered back with a pair of homeruns of their own to highlight a four-run rally to take the lead for good.
Isaac Nowell started the rally with a solo homerun to left field, his sixth of the season.
Jaxon Chaney followed up later in the inning with his team-leading 10th homerun of the season. Chaney now has 10 homeruns in back-to-back seasons and 22 career homeruns to give him sole possession of fourth place all-time at Ouachita.
Nowell finished the game 5-for-5 at the plate to account for more than a third of the team's 14 hits in the win.
Dustin Bermudez and
Wyatt Core each had three hits in the win.
Cooper Timmons (6-3) had a quality outing in the win, giving up just two runs with 11 strikeouts and only two walks allowed in the first six innings. Relivers
Cameron Marchant and
Jacob Bowman each held the Ouachita lead to set up Bermudez' five-out save.
Nowell and Core kept the hit parade rolling into the second half of Friday's twinbill. Nowell added his second homerun of the day – seventh of the season – with a three-run blast to highlight Ouachita's five-run first inning. Core added a three-run homerun of his own to finalize the scoring in the top of the seventh inning. It was Core's first round-tripper of the year.
Luke House (5-3) kept SNU scoreless for the first five innings before eventually giving up the only Crimson Storm run of the game. House struck out and gave up only three hits in his six innings of work.
Jaxon Rees held Ouachita's lead with a scoreless seventh inning.
The Tigers go for the sweep on Saturday in the series finale. First pitch is set for noon in Bethany.
