BASEBALL EARNS HARD FOUGHT WIN OVER NORTHEASTERN STATE

        RUSSELLVILLE, Arkansas – The Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys baseball team picked up an exciting 3-2 victory over the Northeastern State River Hawks Tuesday evening at Tech Field to improve to 11-10 on the season.

        The Wonder Boys used a two-run bottom of the ninth inning to get the victory. Robbie Hohler (Searcy, Ark.) picked up his third hit of the game, a game winning one, which drove in Tony Sanchez (Mesquite, Texas) who had reached previously on walk by NSU pitcher Matt Averitt.

        Averitt faced two hitters in the ninth, each of which reached. Adam Hibdon came on in relief but was only able to retire two Tech hitters before the Hohler game-winning single.

        Josh Floriani (Malvern, Ark.), who was Tech’s eighth pitcher used in the ballgame, picked up the win for the Wonder Boys, improving his record  to 2-0 this season.

        Tech pitchers, as a whole, were very solid on the evening striking out nine NSU hitters, while allowing only five hits.

The River Hawks picked up the early lead in the first inning when Jimmy Pike singled through the left side scoring center fielder Kyle Davidson from second. Tech later tied the game in the bottom of the fifth inning when senior Jantzen Black (Greenwood, Ark.) hit a sacrifice fly which scored Josh Holloway (Booneville, Ark.), tying the game at one apiece. The RBI was Black’s 17th of the season.

The River Hawks re-took the lead in the top of the seventh when designated hitter Brett Roberts doubled to lead off the inning and a Matt Huggard bunt moved pinch runner Erasmo Paredes over to third base. From there, left fielder Kevin Campbell drove Paredes home on a sacrifice fly, to make the score 2-1 at that point.

Tech, who pounded out nine hits, was led offensively by Holloway and Hohler who each had three hits. Holloway crossed home plate twice in the contest and also stole two bases, giving him six on the season. Black also had a pair of hits and an RBI for Tech in the victory, improving his team-leading average to .493 in 2008.

The Wonder Boys will be back in action this weekend, March 15-16, as they open up Gulf South Conference play with a three game home series against the Henderson State Reddies. Play will begin Saturday with the teams playing a double header with the first game being a nine inning game scheduled for 2 p.m. followed by a seven inning contest approximately 30 minutes afterwards. The two teams will play one nine inning game on Sunday beginning at 1 p.m.

BOX SCORE

-- Tech Athletics --