The Southeastern Savage Storm baseball team clinched a return to the Great American Conference postseason tournament with a series win on the road at Southern Arkansas over the weekend.
Coach Alan Trayler’s club rode superb pitching to a sweep in the first two games of the league set by posting 6-0 and 8-1 victories. The Muleriders salvaged the third game of the set with a 12-7 decision.
Now 26-18 overall, the Savage Storm return home for a three-game series with rival East Central on Friday and Saturday at Mike Metheny Field before setting their full sites on the league tournament.
Leading the nation in home runs coming into the series, Southeastern managed just one long ball in the opening two contests but instead cashed in with an overshadowed pitching staff stepping to the forefront.
Dylan Hill and Estevan Fonseca combined for the initial shutout as they scattered nine hits over nine innings, struck out seven and walked two.
It took a while for the Savage Storm offense to get going in the pitcher’s duel that was scoreless until the seventh inning. In that frame Southeastern strung together their only five hits of the game, a couple of free passes and a Southern Arkansas error to plate all six runs for the game.
Ryan Kirk walked, J.J. Bush singled and Carter Olson added a run-scoring hit for the first run of the day. Austin Parker added an RBI single and Jax Heid drove in two with a double that highlighted the uprising.
Southeastern steadily pecked away on the scoreboard in the nightcap, taking the early advantage on runscoring singles from Olson and Payton Poole. Ryan Kirk chipped in three straight RBI on a sacrifice fly in the second frame and double in the fourth.
Bush provided the major fuel though with a home run that knocked in two in the fourth.
That was all the pitching staff needed however as Jacob Fuller fired five dynamite stanzas, yielding three hits and struck out three for the victory. Marcus Mott tossed in two frames in which he gave up one run on one hit.
Poole keyed the offensive attack with three hits while Kirk and Bush both added a pair. Kirk also drove in three as Bush added two RBI.
Pitching was a bit rougher in the series final contest as five Southeastern hurlers combined to allow nine hits and walk 10 over the course of eight innings.
Southeastern claimed an early 3-0 edge on an Olson three-run blast over the centerfield wall in the first stanza. Bush doubled home a run an inning later for a 4-1 cushion but it was short-lived as the Muleriders tallied 11 runs over the next four frames to take control.
The Savage Storm ended the day with a 14-9 advantage in hits but only produced seven runs from those.
Isaac Villa notched three hits with Kirk, Bush and Olson all contributing two.
