BETHANY, Okla.— Southern Nazarene closed its opening series of the 2019 season with Southwest Baptist by dropping both games of a doubleheader on Saturday at Feland Field 5-4, and 8-3.
The Crimson Storm (1-2) were looking to win their first two games of the year for the first time since the 2009 season, but the Bearcats (2-1) finally got their bats going on Saturday after struggling on the opening day Friday.
Ryan Mills got the start on the bump for the Crimson Storm in the opener as the senior allowed two runs, two walks, four hits, and struck out two batters in 4.1 innings of action.
Noah Serrano came in to relive Mills in the fifth and gave up two hits in 2.2 innings of work.
Tyler Thompson took the loss for the Storm as he allowed two hits and the game-winning run for the Bearcats.
Sophomore
Emilio Escobedo led the way at the plate for Southern Nazarene as he went 3-for-4 with a run scored. He was the only SNU player to tally multiple hits in the opener, but
Connor Dayton and
A.J. Nelums each recorded their first home runs of the season. Dayton went 1-for-4 with a homer and three RBI's, while Nelums finished 1-for-3 with a solo shot.
Shelby Reese went 1-for-2 at the plate with a run scored and senior
Garrett Perez finished 1-for-4 as the Storm matched Southwest Baptist in hits, with both clubs tallying eight.
Southern Nazarene also finished the game with a couple of errors, and those proved to be costly coming down the stretch.
After a slow start from both sides at the plate, Southwest Baptist struck first in the top of the third to take a 1-0 lead. The Bearcats extended that lead to 2-0 in the fifth inning before the Storm finally got their bats going. Nelums cranked one to left-center and the solo shot cut the SBU lead in half at 2-1.
The fireworks at the plate continued for SNU in the sixth as
Connor Dayton launched a three-run bomb over the fence to give the Storm a 4-2 lead. Later in the eighth, the Storm committed a couple of errors which resulted in SBU scoring two runs and tying the game 4-4. With two outs in the same innings, Southwest Baptist pushed across one more run to take the 5-4 lead.
The Storm needed one run and had six outs to do it but SBU's David Tongue came in and closed the door in the final two innings, crushing any hope for an SNU comeback in the opener.
Freshman
Chase Wetwiska got the start in the final game of the series and he took the loss as the Storm were ousted 8-3 in the finale. He tossed 4.1 innings and gave up three hits, four runs, two of those earned, and walked six in an outing where he also struck out two SBU batters.
Much like the first couple games of the series, it took the Storm a little bit to get their bats going. After the Bearcats pushed across two runs in the fourth inning to take a 2-0 lead, they added two more in the fifth to take a 4-0 lead. SNU responded in the bottom of the fifth with a couple of runs to cut it to 4-2, but that's the closest the Storm would come.
Southwest Baptist tallied one run in the sixth and three more in the seventh to take their largest lead of the series at 8-2. SNU scored one run in the bottom of the seventh but it was too little too late as the Bearcats took the final two games of the series.
Garrett Perez finished 2-for-4 at the plate in the finale with a run scored, while
Shelby Reese also went 2-for-4 with two RBI's.
Cole Lee finished 1-for-3,
Connor Dayton went 1-for-2, and
Cobi Ceron finished 1-for-2 with a run scored.
