Baseball Season Ends with ECU

WEATHERFORD –Southwestern Oklahoma State raised the curtain for the last time on its 2006 baseball season by splitting doubleheader games with visiting East Central Sunday in Weatherford. The Bulldogs won the first game 8-7 before the Tigers bounced back in the nightcap winning 11-6.

SWOSU ended the year with an overall record of 21-31 and finished sixth in the LSC North with a 6-16 mark. ECU finished at 16-35 overall and 9-15 in the division.

In the first game, SWOSU used a two-run homer by Sean Rogers as part of a five-run, fourth inning that pushed the Bulldogs into an 8-7 lead. Rogers finished the day with three RBI’s, including a sacrifice fly that scored a run in the third.

SWOSU trailed 7-3 entering its half of the fourth before solving ECU’s starter Dan Henley. Lance Scales led off with a walk and Landon Thompson singled to set up Garion Davenport’s three-run homer. Davenport’s homer, his seventh of the year, brought SWOSU to within one run at 7-6.

The slim lead would hold up for SWOSU thanks to a strong effort by reliever Jeff Keller who pitched a scoreless sixth and seventh inning to pick up his first save of the year. Keller allowed only one hit and managed to get out of tight spot in the seventh when ECU had runners on first and third with just one out. He got the next two batters out on a pop foul and a grounder to short.

Starter Dustin Anderson (3-7) got the win on the mound, scattering nine hits and allowing seven runs through five innings of work. He struck out three and walked one before giving way to Keller at the beginning of the sixth.

In the second game, SWOSU and ECU were tied at 4-4 through four innings before the Tigers exploded in the fifth for seven runs to put the game out of reach.

Thompson was the hitting star for the Bulldogs as he had five RBI’s, three of which came on a bases loaded triple, his record seventh three-base hit this season.