MONTICELLO, Arkansas – The Ouachita baseball team erased a 9-0 first-inning deficit and rallied to defeat Arkansas-Monticello on the road Tuesday night by a final score of 13-12.
The Weevils sent 14 batters to the plate and hit three home runs in the nine-run first inning to seize control early. However, the Tigers began chipping away at the deficit, including a five-run second inning highlighted by a two-run home run from
Reece McWilliams.
Garrett Graham,
Jaren Ceasar, and
Raygan Yager also had run-producing at bats in the frame.
Yager added another RBI in his next at bat in the third to cut the Tiger deficit down to three at 9-6.
UAM plated two more in the fifth to go up 11-6, and once again the Tigers responded, scoring another five runs in the top of the sixth inning to tie up the game at 11-11. The Tigers took advantage of walks, hit batters, and wild pitches in the frame. Graham came up with a two-run single. Other run producers in the inning were Ceasar,
Ashton Ybarra, and
Joseph Bolin.
That 11-11 score held into the ninth when Ybarra put the Tigers on top for the first time of the game with a two-run double, driving in Ceasar and
Cade Bowman, who both walked earlier in the inning.
The Weevils scored one in the bottom of the ninth, but the tying run was left stranded as
Lucas Mercado came on for the two-out save to secure the victory.
Braden Tucker earned the win, his team-high fifth of the season, after giving up just one run on four hits in 3.2 innings of relief in the later innings.
The Tigers ended up with 13 hits in the game to mark their 18th game this season with at least 10.
Ouachita is back in action this weekend on the road in Alva, Oklahoma against Northwestern Oklahoma State. The three-game Great American Conference series has been pushed back a day from its original schedule due to weather and will now be played as a double header this Saturday, April 18 starting at 1 p.m. and a single game on Sunday at noon.
