SE baseball posts second weekend sweep

  • Southeastern baseball player John David Muse leaps onto home plate during the end of a game Saturday with Newman University that the Savage Storm won. Matt Swearengin | Durant Democrat
    Southeastern baseball player John David Muse leaps onto home plate during the end of a game Saturday with Newman University that the Savage Storm won. Matt Swearengin | Durant Democrat
  • Southeastern player Austin Thorp swings at the ball.
    Southeastern player Austin Thorp swings at the ball.
  • SE’s Coby Grimsley is about to swing at the ball.
    SE’s Coby Grimsley is about to swing at the ball.
  • Savage Storm player Damon Burroughs runs to first base.
    Savage Storm player Damon Burroughs runs to first base.
  • Southeastern baseball players run out onto the field after their victory Saturday against Newman University.
    Southeastern baseball players run out onto the field after their victory Saturday against Newman University.
  • SE baseball posts second weekend sweep
    SE baseball posts second weekend sweep

For the second weekend in a row it wasn’t always pretty but the Southeastern baseball team was able to break out the brooms for a second straight series sweep of a northern opponent.

This time around it was Newman University of Kansas as the opponent as the Savage Storm concluded the season-opening homestand with a 6-1 record.

Things likely get a lot more difficult with the Great American Conference opener this weekend on the road against league favorite and 17th ranked Southern Arkansas.

Southeastern blasted its way to a 13-0 run rule victory in Friday’s series opener, riding the stellar pitching of Cameron Hauch along the way as the righthander fired six scoreless frames while yielding one hit with six strikeouts coupled with four walks.

Senior stalwart Damon Burroughs was a virtual one-man wrecking crew early on as he belted a two-run homer in the third inning and another three-run blast in the fifth.

The Savage Storm had a home run barrage in the opening six stanzas as Nick Hill smacked a solo blast and Wesley Mitchell chipped in a three-run blast in the sixth that made it 9-0.

Coach Zach Crabtree’s squad added to the advantage with RBI from Yanluis Ortiz and Cache Stone as well as a Hill two-run single up the middle.

Hill had three of the team’s nine hits to lead the charge. Burroughs and Reid Rice had two hits apiece with Mitchell and Cody Grimsley both contributing one.

In Saturday’s first game of the doubleheader, the Savage Storm needed late heroics for a 12-11 win as they offset five errors.

Trailing 9-5 in the seventh, Southeastern pushed across three runs to narrow the gap. Ortiz and Rice each singled, Cromer picked up a two-out RBI on a walk and Matt Miles singled to bring home the final three runs of the frame.

Each team notched two runs in the eighth as the Savage Storm answered Newman with a Mitchell two RBI double that made it 11-10.

The hosts finished the comeback with two runs in the bottom of the ninth as Rice’s RBI single drove home John David Muse with the winner.

Burroughs, Ortiz and Rice all had two hits and Brody Logsdon, the final of six Southeastern pitchers, was credited with the victory with one and two-third frames of scoreless relief.

The finale saw the Savage Storm score in all but one inning as they outhit the Jets to post a 10-5 triumph.

Mitchell, Cam Wheeler and Hill all smacked solo homers in the first three stanzas to keep the game tied at 4-4 and Wheeler’s run-scoring double in the fifth put Southeastern ahead to stay.

Rice and Mitchell added two-run blasts in the sixth to give the Savage Storm plenty of cushion.

Michael Minaya twirled two innings of two-hit relief, yielding a run and fanning two to notch the mound win.

Hill and Wheeler chipped in three hits apiece with Burroughs and Mitchell contributing two each.

SE pitcher Brody Logsdon hurls the ball at a Newman University batter.