ARKADELPHIA – The Ouachita baseball team recorded a pair of emphatic victories across the street over rival Henderson State on Saturday to complete a three-game sweep and earn a spot in next weekend's Great American Conference Tournament opening round.
Final scores on Saturday were 10-4 and 14-3. The Tigers won 6-3 in the series opener on Thursday night. It was Ouachita's first three-game conference sweep over HSU since 2014.
Ouachita finishes the regular season with an even 24-24 overall record and a 16-17 mark in GAC games. The wins on Saturday ended HSU's season at 26-21 overall and 15-18 in conference games.
The Tigers will be the No. 7 seed in the GAC tournament, which is set to begin next Thursday, April 30 in Hot Springs at Majestic Park. Ouachita is set to face No. 2 seed Arkansas Tech on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. The tournament features two four-team brackets with the winners of each bracket meeting the following weekend, May 8-10, for a best-of-three series to determine the tournament champion and recipient of the automatic bid into the NCAA regional tournament.
In the first game on Saturday, the Tigers broke the game open with a five-run third inning, highlighted by a three-run home run from
Joseph Bolin. The lead was extended to 8-1 with a three-run fourth including an RBI single from
Octavio Mendivil, a bases loaded walk from
Jaren Ceasar, and a sac fly from
Ashton Ybarra.
The Tigers went up 10-1 in the sixth on an RBI double from Ybarra and an RBI single by
Raygan Yager. HSU responded with two in the bottom of the sixth and one more in the seventh, but the Tigers pulled off the win thanks to their big cushion early.
Austin Bagnall (3-4) earned the win after allowing three runs off six hits in the first 6.1 innings.
Reece Tarini closed out the game allowing no runs or hits in the final 2.1 innings.
In the series finale, the Tigers kept their season alive with a late-inning offensive surge including eight runs in the sixth and six more in the seventh of the scheduled seven-inning affair.
HSU carried the momentum in the early innings, holding the Tigers scoreless and hitless through the first four innings.
Raygan Yager led off the fifth inning with a single to break up the no-hitter bid from HSU starter Rhett Richardson.
Joseph Bolin started the sixth-inning rally with his second home run of the day, another three-run round-tripper to left field, his team-high ninth long ball of the season. The rest of Ouachita's runs in the inning came in a two-out rally all on singles.
Cade Bowman, Mendivil, Ceasar, and Ybarra all drove in runs with two outs.
The Reddies responded in the bottom of the sixth with a two-run home run by Tanner Ross to make it 8-3 in favor of the Tigers.
In the seventh, Ouachita added on with a bases-loaded walk by Mendivil, a two-run double from Ceasar, a sac fly from
Garrett Graham, and a two-run home run from
Ashton Ybarra.
Braden Tucker (6-3) earned his team-high sixth win of the year after giving up just two earned runs off five hits with five strikeouts and no walks in the first 5.1 innings.
Reece Tarini gave the Tigers another dominant outing of the bullpen, giving up just one hit in the final 2.1 innings.
The Tigers reached double-digits in runs and hits in both games on Saturday, marking the eighth and ninth games this year with at least 10 runs and the 22nd and 23rd games of the year with at least 10 hits.
