ALVA, Okla. – An early six-run deficit was too much for Northwestern Oklahoma State University baseball to overcome on the diamond Friday evening as a late rally falls short in an 11-8 loss to Southwestern Oklahoma State at Glass Family Field at Myers Stadium.
Northwestern will close its season Saturday afternoon in a doubleheader with the Bulldogs beginning at 1 p.m. Entering the final two games of the season, the Rangers are 23-24 overall and look to tie the mark for most wins by an NCAA Ranger team with 25.
Senior Day festivities will take place prior to the start of the game at 12:30.
After the Bulldogs put six runs on the board in the first two innings, including a big three-run home run in the first inning, the Rangers made it a two-run game in the bottom of the third behind four straight hits.
Daschal Johnson started the hit parade as he followed a Jake Darrow free pass with an infield single. Darrow then scored from second when Luis Cintron sent the ball through the left side of the infield for the Rangers first run.
Carlos Andujar and Johnnuelle Ponce followed with back-to-back doubles with Johnson scoring on the double down the left field line by Andujar. Cintron and Andujar were plated on the double by Ponce, who now has 58 runs batted in this season, the most by a Ranger since Jonathan Freemyer had 52 in 2014.
Southwestern added a single run in the fourth and sixth innings to make it 8-4. Unfortunately, a three-run blast by the Bulldogs in the top of the eighth in would ultimately prove to be the difference.
Trailing 11-4 heading in to their final half inning of the game, the Rangers made one final push, all with two outs. Darrow again started the rally by getting on base with a single and Johnson reached on an error by the Bulldog third baseman.
Cintron earned his second RBI hit of the game with a hard hit ball into center to score Darrow, just ahead of a two-run double off the top of the wall in center from Andujar to make it 11-7. Andujar moved to third on a wild pitch, putting him in position to score on the second error at third in the inning.
Unfortunately, a groundout ended the Ranger threat and game.
Brandon Nesseralla took the ball in the fourth inning on the mound and struck out seven batters in just 4.2 innings of work, his second highest strikeout total of the season. He set all three outs down on strikes in the fifth inning, and struck out four of five batters in the seventh and eighth innings.
Caleb Honea (2-4) took the loss for the Rangers.
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