ADA, Okla. – The East Central University baseball team took on NWOSU for a doubleheader series finale, dropping two hard-fought games that went down to the wire on Saturday at Ken Turner Field.

In the first game of the doubleheader, ECU starting pitcher Bryan Terry gave up a run in the opening frame on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly but notched a big strikeout to escape the jam. ECU would quickly tie the score in the bottom of the first when Cooper Hunt led off with a walk, Duncan Key sacrificed him to second, and Christian Whitaker drove home the run with an RBI single.

ECU had some traffic on the base paths in the second, as Nick Blankenship was hit by a pitch and sacrificed to second by Gage Boatman, but Blankenship was stranded there. The third inning looked promising as well when Hunt singled before swiping second. Key's groundout moved the runner to third with one out, but two Tiger ground outs ended the threat.

In the meantime, Terry was cruising on the mound, only allowing a couple of base runners, and struck out the side in the fourth. In the fifth, Terry ran into trouble with a walk and infield single with one out before a Northwestern home run pushed the lead to 4-1.

ECU could not cut into the lead over the last four innings while Terry and reliever Drake Sisemore shut out Northwestern as well, with ECU taking the tough loss 4-1.

Bryan Terry was the hard-luck losing pitcher, going seven strong innings, giving up four runs on five hits, four walks, and striking out nine. Drake Sisemore went two scoreless, hitless frames while punching out two. 

Hunt, Whitaker, Britton Sperry, Dawerlyn Amancio and Tucker Abney each had a hit for the Tiger attack.

In game two, the Tigers and Rangers locked up in a wild battle to see who would win the series. Northwestern would take the early lead on ECU starting pitcher Carson Thomas in the top of the first with two quick runs on four hits. 

The Tigers would score four runs in a wild bottom of the inning. Walks to Duncan Key, Cooper Hunt, and Christian Whitaker would load the bases with no one out. Britton Sperry would then drop down a perfect squeeze bunt to score Key. Sperry would be safe at first on a throwing error which allowed Hunt and Whitaker to score on the play while Sperry headed for third base. Another wild throw got by the third baseman, and Sperry scampered home to give the Tigers a 4-2 lead without a bat swing.

Northwestern was able to tie the game up in the top of the second, though, with two doubles and a single to make it 4-4.

In the top of the third, Jarod Leroux relieved Thomas with runners on first a second. Leroux was able to gun down the lead runner at third on an attempted sacrifice bunt but gave up an RBI single as the Rangers took the lead 5-4 before Leroux pitched his way out of the jam to keep the Tigers close. 

ECU threatened in the third before pushing across a run in the fourth. Nick Blankenship was hit by a pitch to lead it off, and Michael Rosario sacrificed him to second. An error on the throw allowed Rosario to reach first and Blankenship advanced to third. Tanner Collins then put down a squeeze bunt, scoring Blankenship from third and picking up an RBI. Another error on the throw to first allowed Collins to reach, but Rosario was thrown out trying to score on the play, so the game remained tied at 5. 

Leroux ran into trouble in the fifth, giving up a two-out RBI single as the Rangers took the 6-5 lead. Bryce Crawford came on in relief and got a line out to end the inning. Crawford went on to blank the Northwestern attack over the final two frames to give the Tigers a chance to come back for the win.

ECU had traffic on the base paths in each of the last three innings but was unable to scratch a run and fell to the Rangers by a score of 6-5. 

Carson Thomas took the loss, going two innings, giving up four earned runs on seven hits while striking out three. Jarod Leroux went 2.2 innings in relief, allowing one run on three hits while walking one and striking out two. Bryce Crawford finished the game on the hill, going 2.1 innings and giving up one hit while striking out two. 

Cooper Hunt, Christian Whitaker, and Tanner Collins picked up hits for the Tigers, while Britton Sperry and Collins also had RBIs. 
 
The East Central University baseball team will be back in action on the road against Northwestern with a single game in Enid, Oklahoma at 2 p.m.