by Athletic Communications
Rangers were ready to return for a home series after playing eight of their last nine games on the road. Rangers trailed the Weevils by one game in the Great American Conference and changed that by sweeping the Friday afternoon doubleheader, first game 10-3 and the second game in walk-off fashion 5-4.
Game 1:
Rangers finished the game with 13 hits in game one. Yugo Hamakawa, Marques Paige and Colton Whitehouse led the team with three hits apiece. Whitehouse led game one with four RBIs, Donovan finished with two RBI’s, Hamakawa and Jose Rubalcava each had one.
Jacob Uhing got his first start of the year going 4.2 innings allowing three runs on four hits with three walks. Uhing struck on three on the day. He was relieved by Kaleb Honea who threw 4.1 innings striking out five and allowing zero runs in his outing. Honea was the winning pitcher in game one.
After a scoreless first inning Randels made a diving stop to end the inning and give the Rangers some momentum. Paige continued his hot hitting from last weekend with a solo homerun in the bottom of the 2nd inning.
Monticello evened the score in the top of the fourth on a homerun from Andrew Piraino to get the Weevils on the board. Rangers wasted no time answering back with a strong fourth inning scoring four runs on four hits. Johnson would get things started
Honea would come in with a 3-2 count and the bases loaded and would get strikeout the first batter he saw getting out of the jam. Rangers fired back in their half of the fifth with two runners on. Donovan would hit a single to centerfield driving in two more runs to make it a 7-3 game.
After a scoreless top of the sixth inning, the Rangers offense stayed alive with three more runs building a 10-3 lead. Whitehouse came through with an RBI double. Rubalcava followed with an RBI single. Hamakawa would drive the final run in of the game with an RBI single bringing the game to 10-3.
Honea closed out the win forcing a groundout to shortstop for the Rangers to pick up the win in game 1. Honea improved to 2-1 on the season.
Game 2:
During game two, the Rangers won in comeback fashion after trailing 4-0 the Rangers would come back with five unanswered runs to walk off with a 5-4 win. Rangers would have nine hits on the day producing five runs.
Scott Creedon started game two for the Rangers, throwing a complete game for the second time this season. He went seven innings and allowed four runs on seven hits. He struck out 10 Monticello hitters.
After a scoreless opening inning, Monticello’s offense struck first in the second inning when they finished the inning with two homeruns one from Borman and the other from Shepherd.
The Weevils scored two more in the top of the fifth inning when Reyna tripled to center field driving in two runs opening a 4-0 lead. Northwestern would produce four hits through four innings but would not produce a run until they struck in the fifth.
Creedon would throw a scoreless sixth inning. Whitehouse would draw a leadoff walk to bring up Randels. Randels would deliver with a towering shot to straightaway centerfield to even the game at four runs apiece.
Creedon would pitch out of a jam in the top of the seventh to keep the game even at four. Rangers showed a lot of plate discipline in the bottom of the frame with four walks including the eventual walk-off walk drawn by Randels.
The sweep guarantees the first Rangers series win over Arkansas Monticello since 2015 and the first win against the Weevils since 2018. The Rangers will look to complete the series sweep Saturday afternoon at 1 PM in Glass Family Field at Myers Stadium.