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WONDER BOYS FALL SHORT AT HOME TO NO. 17 DELTA STATE
RUSSELLVILLE,
Arkansas –
The Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys Baseball team had a 7-3
lead after seven innings but could not hold off the
17th-ranked Delta State Statesmen who rallied for 10
runs over the final two innings enroute to its 13-7 win
here Saturday night at Tech Field.
The game, which was originally scheduled to begin at 2
p.m. and be a doubleheader, was delayed nearly five
hours due to rain. The game finally began at 7 p.m. as a
single nine inning contest. The teams will play a
doubleheader on Sunday beginning at 1 p.m.
With the loss, Tech falls to 19-27 on the
season and 7-9 in the GSC, while DSU improved its mark
to 30-13 overall and 14-2 in league play. With its loss
and Henderson State’s 7-5 win over Christian Brothers,
Tech and HSU are now tied for fifth place in the West
Division standings with five games to play.
DSU’s Clay Sartain hit his first of his two
home runs on the night in the first inning, a two-run
blast giving the Statesmen an early 2-0 lead.
The Wonder Boys answered with three runs in
the third inning to take a 3-2 lead. In the inning,
senior designated hitter Tony Sanchez (Mesquite,
Texas) delivered a two-run single to tie the game and
senior rightfielder Clint Stroud (Bonham, Texas)
roped a double giving the Wonder Boys its lead.
In the fifth inning, Sartain knotted the game
at 3 in the fifth with an RBI single.
The Wonder Boys struck for four runs in the
sixth to take a 7-3 lead. Junior third baseman Tyler
Taunton (Shreveport, La.) drew a bases loaded walk
to put the Wonder Boys on top 4-3, while freshman
shortstop Tyler Shaw (St. Mary’s, Ga.) produced
an RBI on a fielder’s choice and another run scored on
the play thanks to an errant throw from DSU shortstop
Devin Goodwin. Junior centerfielder Chad Wynn
(Bono, Ark.) then blooped an RBI single scoring Shaw and
extending the Wonder Boys advantage to 7-3.
The Wonder Boys, though, could not hold the
lead as the DSU offense surged for four runs in the
eighth and six in the ninth, capped by a grand slam off
the bat of Sartain in the ninth inning.
Junior Karl Whitley (Tucson, Ariz.)
drew the start on the mound for the Wonder Boys. He
allowed three runs on seven hits, walking six and
striking out three in 5.2 innings of work. Senior
Barrett Davis (North Little Rock, Ark.), the third
Tech pitcher of the night, took the loss, surrendering
five runs on five hits in 1.2 innings to fall to 2-3 on
the season.
On the night, four Wonder Boy pitchers
combined to walk 10 Statesmen hitters and also hit two
batters.
Cody Kelley (4-2), the third of three DSU
pitchers, allowed just one hit in three innings of
relief to earn the win for the Statesmen.
Wynn led the Wonder Boy offense going 3-for-5
with an RBI and a run scored, while Stroud had two hits
and an RBI and Shaw scored two runs in the loss.
Sartain sparked the DSU attack, going for
4-for-5 at the plate with two homers and eight RBIs,
while Michael Niemann drove in a pair for the Statesmen.
Delta State
Box Score
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