Baseball Keeps Winning Ways

April 11, 2007

WEATHERFORD, Okla. – Southwestern Oklahoma State University kept its hold on first place in the Lone Star Conference North Division baseball race by putting away visiting East Central University in what has been the customary dramatic fashion. The Bulldogs were winners again in their last at bats coming away with an 8-6 victory in the first game and then rallying for a 6-5 victory in the second game.

The wins, SWOSU’s fourth and fifth straight, improve the Bulldogs to 8-3 in the LSC North while bettering their overall mark to 14-25. ECU, the division’s last-place team, fell to 7-36 and 1-11 in LSC North play.

SWOSU will next play on the road against Southeastern Oklahoma State University in a three-game series beginning Saturday in Durant.

In the first game, the Bulldogs watched a small lead evaporate and the Tigers take a 6-4 lead after four and one half innings. SWOSU evened the score at 6-6 in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a fielding error by the Tigers that allowed two runs to score.

SWOSU won it in the sixth when Sean Rogers smashed a two-out triple that scored Ryan Starzenski and Lance Scales. Rogers, who tripled earlier in the game, is one of only a handful of Bulldogs to triple twice in the same game, He has now tripled twice in the same game twice this season.

In the second game, SWOSU appeared to be heading quietly to a loss trailing 4-0 through five innings before coming awake. Fielding miscues again aided the Bulldogs and a two-out double by Blain Perkins scored two runs as part of a five-run sixth inning that put SWOSU ahead 5-4.

ECU tied it at 5-5 it in its half of the seventh only to see the Bulldogs answer again in the bottom of the inning. Jonathan Fontanet’s two-out single scored Scales with the winning run as the Bulldogs celebrated what was their fourth straight win in a one-run  game.