BETHANY, Okla. — Southern Nazarene won back-to-back games for the first time this year as it recorded a 12-8 win over East Central in the first game of a doubleheader before falling 8-6 in the second game.
 
In the opener, the Crimson Storm tied its GAC season-high for hits with 14. Mike Descisciolo was 3-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored while Dalen Edgar went 3-for-5 with two runs scored. Ryan Tucker was also 2-for-4 with a run scored while Anthony Wiggins went 2-for-5 with a pair of RBIs.
 
East Central broke the scoreless tied in the top of the third with four in the inning. The Crimson Storm got one back in the bottom of the third when Edgar scored on an ECU error to make it 4-1. The Tigers pushed it to 5-1 in the top of the fifth and then took a 7-1 lead in the top of the sixth.
 
Southern Nazarene erupted in the bottom of the seventh with six to tie it at 7-7. The first came in on a Dillon Feland sacrifice fly before a Tyler Stevens singled up the middle to cut the score to 7-3. SNU then got a bases-loaded walk from Descisciolo and a Cobi Ceron ground out to score two more before Wiggins tied it with a single down the right field line.
 
SNU took its first lead of the game in the eighth when Garrett Perez ripped a single through the right side to score Austin Cooper before another Tiger error gave the Storm a 9-7 lead. In the next at bat, Descisciolo laced a single down the left field line to push the lead to 11-7. Ceron then singled through the left side to score Descisciolo to give SNU a 12-7 lead.
 
The Tigers put one across the plate in the ninth, but Zach Birkle closed the door as he picked up the win for his third straight on the hill. The freshman moved to 3-1 on the year after throwing 3.1 innings of relief. Birkle allowed just one run, which was unearned, on two hits. Jefferson Harris got the start and gave up seven runs, five earned, on 10 hits in 5.2 innings of work.
 
In the nightcap, Descisciolo got the Storm on the board in the first inning with a single down the right field line. Stevens then put SNU up 4-0 in the bottom of the third when he hit his sixth home run of the year with a 3-run blast to right center.
 
The Tigers cut it to 4-2 in the top of the fourth and added six more in the fifth to lead 8-4.
 
SNU made a late run in the bottom of the seven when it loaded the bases with two outs. Wiggins delivered two runs with a single up the middle to score two to make it 8-6, but the run was cut short.
 
Feland went 2-for-3 with a run scored while Perez went 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Descisciolo took the loss to go to 0-5 on the year. He gave up three runs on two hits. David Gustafson gave up five runs on four hits in the start. He struck out five in four innings.