TAHLEQUAH – Northeastern State rebounded from a doubleheader sweep by Central Missouri on Friday and swept Southwest Baptist 11-6 and 5-2 at RiverHawks Park on Saturday.
The wins were a shot in the arm for NSU who needed to stay in the top-8 in the MIAA standings. With six league contests left on their schedule, the RiverHawks are 11-9 against MIAA programs and ahead of Washburn who has an 8-8 record. Northeastern State does hold the tiebreaker over the Ichabods with a sweep in Tahlequah earlier this season.
Southwest Baptist (26-14,10-8 MIAA) jumped on the RiverHawks out of the gates in the opening frame with back-to-back softly hit singles the sneaked into left and an error loaded the bases. The Bearcats next batter cleared the bases on a full count to right field to go up 4-0 on the RiverHawks.
Northeastern State chopped into the SBU lead in the bottom half of the inning with
Ryan Martin opening the frame on an infield single,
Carlee Gann followed up with a first pitch double to left center for a RBI. After a pair of NSU outs,
Haley Acrey pushed her hitting streak to ten games with a two run shot to left to get them within a run of the Bearcats.
After two scoreless innings, NSU manufactured the tying run with
Kelsey Harmon hitting a RBI single up the middle. Martin followed up with her eighth homer of the year to give the RiverHawks a 6-4 advantage.
In the fifth, SBU landed back-to-back singles, and NSU allowed a run to score on a fielding error while the Bearcats were dropping a sac bunt down. The RiverHawks in the bottom half of the inning, loaded the bases for
Jessica Boone hitting a sac fly to right for an insurance run.
Jess Schuler followed up with a pinch hit double down the left field line to score two more runs and put NSU up 9-5 on the Bearcats.
Northeastern State padded their lead in the sixth with Acrey recording her third RBI of the game on a fielder's choice, and Hinkle had her third hit down the right field line for an RBI to give NSU an 11-5 lead.
The Bearcats in the bottom half of the inning loaded the bases with no outs but only scored a run on a sac fly.
Jennifer Wolf (10-7) tossed a complete game for NSU with nine strikeouts, and four earned runs charged.
NSU led 11-to-10 in hits, with Hinkle going 3-for-3 at the plate, and two runs scored.
In the nightcap, a sac fly by Southwest Baptist in the second would be the game's lone run through the first half of the contest. However, NSU's luck changed in the fourth with two on and a Harmon deep fly ball to center bounced off the glove of the SBU fielder and over the fence for three run shot.
The Bearcats picked a run off of the RiverHawks on back-to-back errors in the fifth. Northeastern State in the bottom half of the frame got the run back on a Acrey single to center field. Later in the inning, NSU made the game 5-2, scoring their second run on a passed ball with the bases loaded.
Despite striking out 12 times, the RiverHawks were only out-hit by one with nine.
Paige Gann went 2-for-3 with a run scored and Acrey pushed her hitting streak to 11 games, going 2-for-4.
Taryn Gray (5-8) threw 6 1/3 innings, with only one earned run charged, Wolf came in and recorded the final two outs for the save.
Northeastern State (22-21,11-9 MIAA) will be on the road in Claremore on Tuesday to play Rogers State in a non-conference doubleheader starting at 5 p.m.
