ARKADELPHIA – The Ouachita baseball team opened its final home series of the season on Friday with 6-4 and 8-3 losses to Southwestern Oklahoma State in Great American Conference action.
Game three of the series is set for Saturday following Ouachita's Senior Day ceremony starting at 12:40 p.m.
In the series opener on Friday, the Tigers gained control early with three runs on five hits, including RBI singles from
Garrett Graham,
Joseph Bolin, and
Cole Bedwell.
Bedwell was responsible for Ouachita's final run in the game with a sacrifice fly in the third to make it 4-0 in favor of the Tigers.
SWOSU gained momentum in the fourth with a four-run rally. The Bulldogs added another in the fifth to gain a 5-4 lead. Meanwhile, the SWOSU pitchers held the Tigers scoreless in the final six innings despite Ouachita collecting a season-high 18 hits. The Tigers had multiple chances in the game to tie or regain the lead but ended up leaving 15 runners on base.
Ashton Ybarra was 4-for-6 in the loss.
Jaren Ceasar, Bolin, and Bedwell all finished with three hits.
In the second game, Ouachita again gained control early with a run in the first inning on an RBI single from Bolin. SWOSU pitcher Garrett Folmar locked in from there and did not allow another Tiger hit until the seventh, when his team had built an 8-1 lead thanks to crooked number rallies in the second, third, and fourth innings.
Presley Nichols and Peyton Sterritt each had RBI hits in the seventh.
