By RANGERS ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT
Northwestern Oklahoma State’s baseball team took the road to the suburb of Oklahoma City for a Great American Conference series with Southern Nazarene and in game one came away with a dominating 18-8 mercy rule victory.
Earning the start for the Rangers on the afternoon was Bryce Tomlin who went five full innings and took home the W, following an 8K outing.
The Rangers collected 17 hits in the contest with six Rangers earning multi-hit games. Leading the way for the guests were two batters in Arturo Castro and Pat Delano. The other four Rangers to have two hits were Jacob Long, Cooper Stanley, Daschal Johnson and TJ Kassner.
Northwestern started off the game with a zero on the board in the top of the first, but came alive in the second as Castro reached on a single. Following the single, Delano came up with his fourth homer of the season and he was followed up with a homerun by Kassner to make it 3-0.
The Crimson Storm didn’t let the Rangers stay in the lead for long after the big inning, plating three runs of their own in the bottom frame on a homer and triple to tie it up at three.
The top of the third would see another run by the visitors as Castro would earn his second straight single, which scored Long in the process.
For the second consecutive inning, SNU tied it up, this time on a SAC fly to centerfield. The run knotted up the score again at four apiece.
In the Ranger frame of the fourth inning, Northwestern would gain a run on the board for the third straight inning as Johnson crossed on an RBI groundout to the shortstop by Dickerman to make it a one-run contest in favor of the guests.
After taking a one-run lead in the fourth, Tomlin sat the hosts down in order, maintaining the advantage at 5-4.
The Rangers had another large inning in the top of five, following a double by Stanley who scored Douglas. The double by Stanley was immediately followed up by a laced two-run jack by Castro to bring the Northwestern advantage to 8-4.
Tomlin was solid for his second straight frame, going 1-2-3, which helped in maintaining momentum for the Rangers.
The momentum was certainly capitalized on in the top of the sixth as two more runs crossed the plate for the visitors. The two plated Rangers made it a six-run commanding lead at 10-4.
In the bottom half of six however, the Crimson Storm posted another run early on, knocking out Tomlin in the process.
Matthew Bickford came on in relief for the Rangers in the inning and allowed two runs to be plated for SNU, bringing the count to 10-7, with the advantage still with the Rangers.
In the top of the seventh inning, Delano, bombed his second homerun of the game to make it 11-7. The rally continued however as a triple by Carrington scored three more, making it a large 14-7 advantage. That wouldn’t be the end of the scoring for the Rangers however as they would plate one more to finish off the top half of seven.
Kassner again pushed it back to an eight-run game though in the very next at bat, doubling to centerfield, scoring Delano on the play who previously reached on a single.
The Kassner double wouldn’t end the inning as Dickerman raked the fifth Ranger homer of the game to score two more on the dinger. The three-run inning pushed the lead to 10 at 18-8.
Bickford allowed two runners in the inning, but he was able to get out of the jam, leading to the mercy-rule 10-run game.
Northwestern Oklahoma State and Southern Nazarene finished up their series on the diamond where the Rangers finished off the series sweep of the Crimson Storm, following a 7-4 win in game one and a dominating victory in game two, 14-4.
Sean Rydell started on the bump in game one of the doubleheader where the freshman went six full innings, surrendering just three runs on five hits. He was also good for three strikeouts in the contest.
Three Rangers had multi-hit games, led by Carrington who was 3-for-5. Following him up were Long and Johnson who were each 2-for-5 at the dish.
Northwestern started off hot as the guests collected three straight singles, making it 2-0 and that was followed up by another single by Johnson to plate the third run of the opening frame.
The starter, Rydell was clean through the first two innings, giving up no runs or base runners for that matter, but that would change in the third as SNU collected two runs on one hit in the inning.
Stanley would increase the lead to 4-0 before the two-run frame by the hosts on a bomb over the right field fence.
Southern Nazarene would be the next to score a run as well, but it wasn’t until the sixth inning, making it a one-run game at 4-3.
That would be all the Storm could muster until the final inning however, while the guests collected three more runs to take the game 7-4.
The six-inning outing by Rydell earned him the win in the game.
The Rangers went into their final game of the series with total confidence.
Northwestern Skipper, Sam Carel changed up the rotation some in the final game against SNU as he elected to go with David Sanchez who has seen most of his action in relief situations.
Sanchez turned out to be the right man for the job as well as he collected his second victory of the season, striking out three Crimson Storm batters along the way.
For the second straight game, Carrington led the way for the Rangers going 3-for-5 at the plate.
Northwestern started early again for the third straight contest, opening it up at 4-0 on four hits, all of which were singles.
It didn’t take long for the hosts to respond however as they would plate two of their own in the bottom half of the first.
The top of the third was another productive inning for the Rangers, scoring four more. Three singles by Stanley, Castro and Delano led to an eventual score following the walk of Kassner. There were three more runs that crossed for Northwestern on a wild pitch, a groundout and a Carrington triple to right.
Following the big inning, the Rangers took a commanding 8-2 lead and they weren’t finished there.
The fourth inning proved to be the demise of SNU in the game as Stanley started things off with his second bomb of the day, making it 9-3. He was followed up by Johnson who singled through the left side, plating Castro in the process.
Three more runs crossed the dish for the visitors, following a double off the bat of Long, scoring two and finally on a single through the left side of the infield by Castro, bring Long around for the run.
Southern Nazarene gained a run in the sixth frame, but they left two men on base, ultimately crippling their chances at a comeback. Northwestern would capitalize again in the top of seven to seal the day and the series in 10-run fashion.