Baseball Wins Pair from Texans

April 19, 2008

STEPHENVILLE, Texas – Southwestern Oklahoma State University bounced back after a tough late-night loss and beat Tarleton State University 15-4 and 6-3 in a baseball doubleheader Saturday in Stephenville, Texas. The twinbill sweep was SWOSU’s first against a Lone Star Conference foe since beating last-place West Texas A&M twice on March 1.

SWOSU now 12-31 and 10-28 on the year will conclude its series with the Texans with a single game Sunday afternoon. The Bulldogs will end their 2008 season with a four-game series against Cameron University next weekend. SWOSU will play two at Lawton on Friday before closing out with a home doubleheader Saturday, April 26 at 12 noon.

In the 15-4 win in the opener, Chris Morrison continued swinging a hot bat going three-for-six with three RBI’s, including a two-run homer in the ninth. Morrison is batting an even .500 (20 hits in 40 at bats) since taking over a starting job in the outfield three weeks ago.

Morrison was not the only offensive star as SWOSU collected 16 hits against four different TSU pitchers. Kenny Hare and Moose Wathen each had three hits and Bow Buckner followed with his first home run of the year.

The production was more than enough for SWOSU starter Ty Pool who had his best outing of the season. Pool pitched eight full innings and allowed four runs on 10 hits. He struck out three and walked one to collect his first win of the year.

In the second game, Morrison again was the difference going two-for-three and hitting a two-run homer. SWOSU trailed 1-0 going into the fourth before Blain Perkins put the Bulldogs on the board with a RBI triple that scored Ryan Starzenski. Dakota Streber then reached on an error and Morrison made it 4-1 with his second homer of the day and fourth of the season.

The Bulldogs added a run in the sixth and pushed their advantage to 6-3 when Matt Ferreira homered in the top half of the seventh.

Nathan Perez picked up the win in relief going the final six innings, allowing just two runs on four hits. He struck out eight and walked none to improve his record to 3-4.