DURANT, Okla. – Northwestern Oklahoma State baseball suffered a pair of setbacks Saturday as they were swept on the road by Southeastern Oklahoma State. The Rangers dropped the first game of the day 8-3 in nine innings before the Savage Storm rallied for five runs in the 4th inning to steal game two 7-6. Right fielder Judah Zickafoose had a career day at the plate, going 5-for-7 with three home runs and five RBI's to go along with a stolen base.
Game 1
Redshirt junior Cole Jackson made the start for Ryan Bowen's squad, but the right-hander lasted just two-plus innings as Southeastern Oklahoma State hit five doubles to score in each of the first three frames to nab a quick 4-0 lead.
Northwestern would pick up their first run of the ballgame when Zickafoose went yard with two outs in the top of the 6th to make it a 5-1 game. After the Savage Storm answered with another run in the bottom half, the Rangers chipped away as Logan Jones drew a bases-loaded walk to cut the lead to 6-2. But the black-and-red offense let the Southeastern pitching staff off the hook when reliever
Hayden Grimes got Daschal Johnson to foul out leaving the bases juiced in the 7th.
The Rangers scored again in the 8th, but the one run wouldn't be enough to overcome the Southeastern advantage as the Savage Storm went on to take game one 8-3.
Game 2
Zickafoose kicked game two off with a bang as he sent a charge into the first pitch he saw for his second home run of the afternoon to give Northwestern an early 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st. Center fielder Johnnuelle Ponce joined the barrel party in the in the 3rd when he smacked his fifth big fly of the season to make it 2-0 in favor of the visitors.
Southeastern would get one back in the bottom of the 3rd off Ranger starter Ryan Marcoccia (3.0 IP, 4 H, 4 ER) when a leadoff double came around to score to cut the Northwestern lead to 2-1.
Zickafoose made SOSU pay for two costly errors in the 4th with his third bomb of the day, this time a three-run shot that scored TJ Kassner and Luis Cintron to make it 5-1. His three-home run day moved him into a tie for the team lead with fellow outfielder Ponce as they both finished the day with five for the year.
But Southeastern would get those runs back and then some in the bottom of the 4th, scoring five runs in the frame by way of four hits, a walk and a hit batter by Marcoccia and reliever Brandon Nesseralla. The big inning gave the Savage Storm a 6-5 lead heading into the 5th.
Kassner would tie the game up at six a piece with an infield single that scored third baseman Luis Mendoza.
After Nesseralla issued a leadoff walk to Austin Ferguson, Bowen looked to senior Tyler Bernhardt for to get the Rangers out of the 5th. The Storm bunted the runner over leading to an intentional walk call by pitching coach Aaron Gilbreath that put runners on first and second with one out. Bernhardt and catcher Harrison Hull then teamed up for the strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play to end the threat.
Southeastern grabbed the winning run in the 6th after Bernhardt walked the first two batters before giving up an RBI single to Caleb Dubler.
Northwestern recorded the ever-elusive triple play in the bottom of the 6th when Matt Goertzen came on in relief of Bernhardt. On his first pitch, the Southeastern batter popped a bunt up the first base line. With Goertzen, catcher Hull and first baseman Justin Bundy all crashing, the ball bounced off a few gloves and before it touched the ground, Goertzen swiped it out of midair. With the runners on the move, Goertzen made the heads up play to throw over to a covering Luis Cintronat first for the second out. Cintron then fired over to Kassner at second to complete the ultra-rare triple play.
But the Rangers would go down in order in the 7th, leading to the series sweep and their sixth straight loss.
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