HOT SPRINGS, Arkansas – The Ouachita baseball team opened Great American Conference play on Sunday evening with a 4-1 loss to Southeastern Oklahoma State at Majestic Park.
Sunday's game had a combined 29 strikeouts with Ouachita pitchers fanning Savage Storm batters 14 times and the Southeastern hurlers getting 15 Ks.
Tiger starter
Chase Oberle (0-1) was saddled with the loss after giving up three earned runs on eight hits with seven strikeouts and one walk in the first 4.1 innings.
Andrew Hayden tossed 3.1 innings of scoreless relief with five strikeouts, three walks, and only one hit allowed.
Braden Tucker retired all four Southeastern batters he faced including two strikeouts in the final 1.1 innings.
The Savage Storm struck first with a solo homerun in the first inning and then added another solo blast in the fourth to take a 2-0 lead.
Ouachita responded in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI single from
Cade Bowman to score
Cole Bedwell, who reached on a fielder's choice earlier in the inning.
Southeastern scored two more in the fifth on two hits and one Ouachita error to go up 4-1.
With the Tiger pitching staff tossing up zeros in the final four innings, Ouachita had a chance to equalize in the eighth with the bases loaded, but Savage Storm reliever Brock Zimmer came in to get a strikeout to end the rally. Zimmer kept the Tigers scoreless in the ninth to earn the save.
Ouachita was limited to four hits in the game, half coming on
Joseph Bolin's 2-for-4 performance.
Logan Bell was 0-for-1, but reached base in his other three plate appearances on walks.
Games two and three of the GAC series will be played on Monday in a double header starting at 10 a.m. at Majestic Park.
