By NICK VILLALOBOS
Editor-in-Chief
The Northwestern baseball season opening weekend ended with an unfortunate four game sweep in Fort Smith, Arkansas on Sunday.
The Rangers entered Crowder field on Friday as the No. 11 ranked team in the Great American Conference preseason poll.
According to riderangersride.com, this was the first match-up on the diamond between one another in each school’s history.
In game one, the Rangers got their offense going early as Ranger Matt Benn doubled to left field, scoring teammate Jacob Long in the first inning.
The early lead would not last long, however, as the Lions came charging back with a run of their own in the first inning as well.
The Lions then went on a tear of the Rangers defense as they scored eight more runs within a span of six innings.
The Rangers did close the deficit a little following a two-run homerun from Benn in the eighth, but the Lions defense would not allow any more runs to score in game one of the series.
Following the Rangers opening day 3-9 loss, the Rangers faced the Lions once more on Saturday in a double header and then for a fourth time on Sunday.
In game two both teams squared off in a pitcher’s duel.
Ranger Walker Wharton had a great debut on the mound with the Red-and-Black as he went five and two-thirds innings, while striking out seven batters and allowing one run. On the other side of the mound, for the Lions, was Evan Sanders. Sanders would pitch a full four innings against the Rangers and record seven strikeouts as well.
The lone run that Wharton gave up in the second inning proved to be the deciding factor in the game. The Rangers would not find any way past the Lions pitcher’s unfortunately, and would fall 0-1 in game two.
Game three featured same heavy hitting from Ranger newcomer, Greg Carrington. Carrington went three for four from the plate and was the only Ranger who recorded a multiple hit game.
Despite the great day at the plate for Carrington, it would not be enough to top the Lions. Fort Smith managed to record five runs off of errors and several open bases in route to a 5-3 victory in game three.
On the final day of the four game series, the Rangers knew that winning the series was all but over. However, they did not go down without a fight.
Following an early Rangers score in the second inning of game four, each team then went in a back-and-forth scoring affair.
Each team entered the final inning deadlocked at six apiece. It looked as if the Rangers might force extra innings until Lion Ozzie Hurt laid down a game winning bunt which allowed the runner on third to crow the plate for the score.
The late score gave the Lions a 7-6 win and completed their four game sweep of the Rangers.
The Rangers (0-4, 0-0) will host Northeastern State University tomorrow at 3 p.m. at Glass Family Field at Myers Stadium. Then they will host West Texas A&M University on Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m..