ENID, Okla. – Dominate starting pitching carried Arkansas-Monticello, Oklahoma Baptist and Arkansas Tech to wins on day one of the Great American Conference Baseball Championships from David Allen Memorial Ballpark.
Game 1 – No. 1 Arkansas-Monticello 4, No. 6 Harding 0
Hunter Huckabee pitched the top-seeded Weevils (32-12) to a 4-0 win against Harding. He limited the Bisons (31-20) to six hits in 6.2 innings of work to improve to 7-0. Ojani Chacon completed the shutout, the Weevils’ first of the season, as he gave up only one hit over the final 2.1 innings.
Harding’s Tanner Smith matched Huckabee at the start as he put up 5.0 scoreless innings of his own. UAM broke through in the home sixth inning when Dylan Borman hit a two-out, three-run home run to left field. The Weevils tacked on a single run in the seventh when David Reyna singled home John Mauldin.
Kaleb Warden and Cade Thompson each went 3-for-5 in the win.
Game 2 – No. 5 Oklahoma Baptist 8, No. 2 Southern Arkansas 2
Oklahoma Baptist’s A.J. Merkel threw a 124-pitch complete game in the Bison’s 8-2 win against Southern Arkansas in a rematch of the 2018 GAC Championship final. He gave up seven hits and he struck out six in registering his third complete game of the season.
Following a second-inning home run by SAU’s Cooper King, Oklahoma Baptist (30-19) answered with three runs in the third inning. Jake Gozzo drove in his GAC-leading 64
th run with a single and Ramon Enriquez plated two runs with a single of his own.
Gozzo drove in his second run of the game in the fifth. Brett Bloomfield brought home the Bison’s fifth run with a squeeze bunt and Eric Carlson plated Garrett McKee on a fielder’s choice. In the ninth inning, PJ Harris doubled home Austin Cooper and Enriquez singled home Austin Cooper.
Carlson and three additional Bison collected multiple hits as he went 3-for-5. Enriquez drove in three runs. Austin Baker, Kane Koenigseder and Dakota WrIght all notched two hits for SAU (29-19).
Game 1 – No. 3 Arkansas Tech 5, No. 4 Southwestern Oklahoma State 2
In Saturday’s finale, Issac Hale won his GAC-leading ninth game of the season in Arkansas Tech’s 5-2 win against Southwestern Oklahoma State. During one stretch of play, he retired 20 straight batters. He finished with a two-hitter and six strikeouts.
Trailing 1-0 in the third inning, the offense for the Wonder Boys (29-21) gave Hale the run support he would need when Jonathon Arrieta mashed a solo home run to left and Riley Hickerson doubled in a pair of runs.
Arrietta hit his second solo home run in as many innings when he cleared the wall in the left center in the fourth. Zack Kesterson scored the fifth Wonder Boy run on a fielder’s choice in the eighth.
SWOSU (24-22) mounted a mild rally in the ninth. Robert Perea ended Hale’s streak of retired batters when he reached on an error to start the inning. With one out, Alex Pimental singled in Alex Bedard. The Bulldogs eventually loaded the bases with one out as brought the tying run to the plate. Hale quelled the rally with strikeouts of Chase Duncan and Sawyer Toole.
Sunday’s action begins with an elimination game between the Muleriders and Bison at 12:30 p.m. In GAC Championships contested in Enid, SAU owns a 15-0 record in elimination games. At 4 p.m., UAM faces SWOSU. In the nightcap, slated fro a 7:30 p.m. first pitch, Oklahoma Baptist takes on Arkansas Tech.