MONTICELLO, Ark. – The Ouachita Tiger baseball team is back to .500 on the season after an 8-4 victory over the University of Arkansas at Monticello on Tuesday afternoon.
Ouachita (2-2) has now scored eight or more runs in back-to-back games for the first time since March 17-18th of last season, when they defeated East Central University 8-6 in game one and 18-7 in game two of the three game series.
Victor Draijer (Heansted, The Netherlands) worked a one-out walk in the top of the first inning. Kyle Alexander (Conway, Ark.) took a 2-1 pitch and crushed the ball into right centerfield to put a pair of runners in scoring position for the Tigers. Two batters later Arkansas-Monticello (2-2) pitcher Jake Keily (0-1) threw a wild pitch that allowed Draijer to score the first run of the contest.
Tigers pitcher Ben Miller (1-0) got off to a bit of a shaky start in his first collegiate game. Miller gave up a leadoff single to Brady Weiss to start out the bottom of the first inning. Then Miller proceeded to walk Garrett Dodd and plunk Brian Ray with a pitch to load up the bases with no outs.
Sean Wagner reached on a fielder's choice to tie the game at 1-1. Dylan Borman flied out to centerfield to give the Boll Weevil's a 2-1 advantage going into the second inning of play.
The Tigers started a two-out rally in the top of the third. Preston Speers (McKinney, Texas) singled to right field on an 0-2 count to keep the inning alive and advanced Draijer over to third. Austin White (Arkadelphia, Ark.) was hit by a pitch to load up the bases. Tyler Riebock (Rockwall, Texas) picked up the easy RBI with a four pitch walk to tie the game at 2-2.
In the top of the fourth inning the offense began to methodically work to take the lead back. Aaron Studdard (Denton, Texas) drew a leadoff walk and Ty Owens (El Dorado, Ark.) placed down a sacrifice bunt to move Studdard over to second. Studdard then reached third on a passed ball by the catcher and came around to score on a fielder's choice.
Ouachita tacked on two more runs in the top of the fifth inning with RBI's by White and Logan Huneycutt (Arkadelphia, Ark.). After making quick work of Monticello in the bottom half of the fifth, the Tigers bats stayed hot in the sixth inning.
Jakahari Howell (Arkadelphia, Ark.) singled up the middle to start out the inning. Howell advanced to second on a fielder's choice and then moved to third on a throwing error by the pitcher. Speers then walked to put runners at the corner for the Tigers with two outs in the inning. White stepped to the plate and blasted an 0-1 pitch over the right field wall to give the Tigers an 8-2 lead.
Monticello tried to keep it close by scoring runs in the bottom half of the sixth and seventh innings, but the Tigers held on for their second consecutive win of the season.
White finished the game going 2-for-3 with 4 RBI's and 2 extra base hits. Miller picked up his first career win going 4 innings and allowing just 2 runs off of 3 hits.
The Tigers and the Boll Weevil's will meet again at Rab Rodgers Field for a three-game series on April 6th and 7th.
Ouachita's next game will be at home on Thursday afternoon against Northwest Missouri State at 1 p.m.
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