DURANT, Okla. – The East Central University baseball team made a quick trip south for a nonconference midweek rivalry matchup against Southeastern Oklahoma State University on Tuesday. The Tigers surged to an early lead and fended off a late rally from the Savage Storm, securing an 8-6 victory for their eighth consecutive win.
With the win, ECU improves to 12-26 overall, a mark they haven't reached since the 2016 season. The Tigers now turn their attention to their upcoming Great American Conference series against Southern Arkansas University this weekend in Magnolia.
Despite this being their fourth game in three days, the Tigers continue to build momentum, battling through crucial victories. Southeastern outhit ECU 15-9, but the Tigers' timely long balls and key moments of execution proved enough to hold off the Savage Storm.
Blake Seefeldt's sacrifice fly put ECU on the scoreboard first, followed by
Christian Fernandez's two-RBI double to left-center, which extended the Tigers' lead to 3-0. In the following inning, ECU pushed their advantage to 4-0 on a solo home run by
Ethan Rone.
Southeastern responded with one run each in the second and third innings to trim the deficit to 4-2, but ECU answered in the sixth.
Zac Carroll drew a bases-loaded walk, and Seefeldt followed with a two-RBI single to make it 7-2.
The Savage Storm pulled one back in the seventh to make it 7-3, but the Tigers added an insurance run in the eighth when Carroll launched a solo homer, extending the lead to 8-3.
Southeastern's offense came alive in the bottom of the ninth, as they threatened a comeback with three runs on five hits, cutting the gap to 8-6. However, reliever
Beau Driggers and the ECU defense worked their way out of the jam, recording the final two outs to secure the win.
Carson Padgett started on the mound, throwing 2.0 innings before
Ryan Dembroski took over for the next 2.0 innings, with both allowing just one run.
Tate Rico then came in for 3.0 innings of relief, giving up one run on four hits and earning his first win of the season.
Trace McDaniels,
Jeremy Slate, and
Beau Driggers closed out the final 2.0 innings to preserve the victory.
Zac Carroll and
Ethan Rone each recorded two hits, with Carroll hitting his second home run of the season and Rone blasting his fifth to lead the team.