ARKADELPHIA – The Ouachita baseball team gave Emporia State its first loss of the young season on Friday by beating the Hornets 6-2 at home at Rab Rodgers Field.
The win improves Ouachita's record to 2-3, while ESU drops to 4-1.
Friday's game was a pitching dual between the Tigers and Hornets for the first seven innings. Ouachita starter
Chase Oberle lasted through the seventh, giving up just two runs on nine hits with three strikeouts and no walk in his no-decision. ESU starter Trent Warstler also had a no-decision with two runs allowed on six hits with three strikeouts and no walks.
ESU struck first with one run on two hits in the top of the second. Ouachita took the lead in the bottom of the third on back-to-back RBI singles from
Wesley Scott and
Octavio Mendivil, but two runs is all the Tigers could muster leaving the bases loaded. The Hornets answered in the top of the fourth with a run on two hits to tie the score at 2-2.
That 2-2 tie held until the bottom of the eighth when the Tigers put together four hits, two hit batters, and one walk to score four runs. The big blow was a two-run single by
Austin Gathright in the middle of the rally. Gathright finished 2-for-3.
Tag Pacot (1-1) earned the win in relief, coming in with two runners on in the eighth and then getting a strikeout and a double play to end the Hornet rally. He then retired the side in the top of the ninth to preserve the victory.
In addition to Gathright's multi-hit performance,
Isaac Nowell went 2-for-4 at the plate with one RBI.
The Tigers are back in action at Rab Rodgers Field on Saturday against Central Oklahoma. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.
