Baseball Stumbles at HSU

February 3, 2008

ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – Southwestern Oklahoma State University started its 2008 baseball season on the wrong side, losing three games to Henderson State in a weekend series. The Bulldogs lost Saturday’s doubleheader by scores of 10-9 and 8-4 and were beaten again in a Sunday single game by an 8-5 margin.

SWOSU (0-3) will play its first home game of the season Tuesday, Feb. 12 against St. Gregory’s.

In the opener, Dakota Streber went five-for-five with two RBI’s and a double. Streber’s RBI single in the fourth was part of a four-run inning that pulled the Bulldogs even at 6-6.

Henderson quickly retook the lead in their half of the fourth and held a 10-7 lead entering the ninth. Kenny Hare and Moose Wathen each scored runs in the ninth as SWOSU closed to within one. However, the Bulldogs could not push across any more as Jonathan Fontanet struck out with two runners on base to end the game.

The second game Saturday was limited to just five innings because of darkness. Henderson tied the game at 2-2 in the first after a two-run homer by Mike Devito and built its lead to 7-2 before winning by an 8-4 score.

Sunday’s game was a tight battle with each team sharing early leads before entering the seventh inning tied at 5-5. The Readies took advantage of two fielding miscues by SWOSU in the seventh to score three runs. Joel Sauceda had a two-RBI double that provided the bulk of the scoring load for HSU that inning.

Even with the losses new SWOSU coach Scott Selby still found bright spots for his Bulldogs.

“I thought we competed very hard, especially on the final game Sunday,” Selby said. “We have to find a way to cut down the errors and play better fundamentally. We do that; we’ll win these types of games in the future.”