ARKADELPHIA – The Ouachita baseball team earned a series win over Southern Nazarene on Saturday with a split, winning a suspended game 7-6 and falling in the finale 7-3.
Joseph Bolin made his case for Great American Conference Player of the Week with 10 hits in the three games combined, highlighted by a game-winning performance in the game two, which was finished on Saturday after being suspended in the top of the eighth inning on Friday night due to darkness.
Bolin finished Friday's portion of the game with a solo homerun in the bottom of the seventh inning to force a 6-6 tie and push the contest into extras. When the game resumed on Saturday, Bolin picked up where he left off on Friday with a game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the eighth to plate
Reece McWilliams, who reached on an infield single earlier in the inning.
Earlier in game two, SNU built a 3-0 lead through the first three innings and Ouachita chipped away, eventually taking a 4-3 lead in the fifth on an infield single from
Cade Bowman.
Ashton Ybarra,
Cole Bedwell, and
Jaren Ceasar all had run-producing at bats leading up that Bowman's hit.
SNU got that run right back in the sixth to force a 4-4 tie. Bedwell struck again in the bottom of the inning with a solo homerun to put the Tigers back on top. SNU regained the lead in the seventh, taking advantage of a Ouachita error to hold a 6-5 advantage to set up Bolin's game-tying blast in the bottom of the frame.
Braden Tucker (4-1) earned the win coming on in relief to start the suspended game. Tucker retired the SNU side in the top of the eighth on two groundouts and a pop up.
In the series finale, SNU came through with a four-run rally in the top of the ninth to avoid being swept in the series. Bolin was 4-for-5 with two RBI. McWilliams was 3-for-4 with two runs scored.
Kyndall Cassidy was 2-for-4.
The Tigers are back in action on Tuesday, March 17 at home in a midweek game against Union. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. at Rab Rodgers Field.
