BETHANY - What an effort it was today as the Crimson Storm baseball team went to battle with the East Central Tigers on the first day of the weekend series between the two at Feland Field.
 
The game turned out to be so eventful that it took an extra inning for the Tigers to fight off the resilient comeback of the Storm as they squeezed out an 11-10 win in the 10^th inning of play.
 
Much can be said about Southern Nazarene in today's game, but most notably, it was the pitching/ Early on, Brett Rexroad and the bats of the Storm made the difference. Rexroad got the start on the mound as he pitched for 7.2 innings, allowing only three runs, and collecting a strikeout. However, going into the 8^th, Rexroad lost hold of the command and allowed more runs than he'd like to.
 
Junior Brandon Rezek came in for relief, pitching for 0.1 innings and allowing three runs. After that, Adrian Flores and Brendan Boily who rounded out the pitching rotation for SNU as Flores allowed one run while Boily struck out one.
 
Sophomore Elijah Brady lead the Crimson Storm at the plate as he turned in an impressive performance, going 4-4, scoring a run, and bringing in three runners. It was actually Brady's bat that brought in the game-tying runs in the bottom of the ninth to extend the game into extras. Austin Glock was also productive on the day as he went 3-6 while absolutely smashing a ball over the right field wall, making that his first home run of the season. Glock would account for two runs scored as well.
 
Junior Jarrett Phillips was feeling it today too, going 3-6 from the plate, driving in a runner, and scoring one of his own. Another notable was Peyton Vinyard who was 2-6 as he played a vital role in bringing in batters in the 4^th and 8^th innings.
 
To tell the tale of the afternoon, it would have to begin in just the 2^nd inning as Austin Glock butchered a ball to put the first run on the board for SNU. At this point, ECU had already scored two runs and had the momentum. This momentum would then shift towards SNU as a Peyton Vinyard double brought in two runners to give Southern Nazarene a 5-3 lead going into the 8^th.
 
The Tigers would combat this run harshly as they accounted for seven runs in the 8th inning. The freshman Vinyard would again answer the call in the bottom of the 8^th as he singled to center field, bringing in two runners. As the game now sat tied at 10-10, an extra inning was ushered in, but it would be ECU who would slam the door shut on SNU, added one more run to cement their victory.
 
Southern Nazarene will be back again tomorrow, at 12 p.m. to round off the weekend series against the Tigers in a double-header.