TAHLEQUAH – Northeastern State scored six unanswered runs in the final two innings to carry themselves to a 12-7 win over Oklahoma Baptist in a final regular season tuneup before the upcoming MIAA Tournament.
The RiverHawks' pitching staff issued a season-high 15 walks, with Oklahoma Baptist leaving 18 runners on base.
Blake Freeman had three hits, moving his career total to 297.
Coby Tweten was the triple short of the cycle with a five RBI evening.
Northeastern State (22-25) used seven arms, with
Kyle Duffey (3-1) earning the decision for the second consecutive game going 1.2 innings and striking out three.
Seth Key started the contest, making his first appearance of the season and first since March 2022. The senior threw 14 pitches and had a scoreless first in his final home appearance.
Tweten gave the RiverHawks a 3-0 lead with one swing of the bat in the opening inning, hitting his eighth homer of the season over the right field fence to score
Isaiah Keller and Rodden.
Northeastern State's bats continued to knock around OBU's starter and added three more runs in the second. Tweten scored his fourth run of the game on a bloop single to right field.
Oklahoma Baptist (28-20) found the scoreboard in the third getting two runs off a pair of singles, and left the bases loaded with NSU reliever
Alex Khan escaping the inning with a strikeout. The Bison added two more runs in the sixth, trimming the NSU lead to a 6-4 advantage.
Walks plagued the NSU bullpen, and the Bison scored two more and got the go-ahead run on the 13th issued base-on-balls in the seventh.
The lead was short-lived for OBU, and Tweten tied the game in the bottom half of the inning on a double to right field. NSU wasn't done, they retook the lead on a wild pitch, and
Brady Evans scored the ninth run of the game on a softly hit ball to shallow left field.
Brayden Rodden led the eighth off with his tenth homer of the season, and the RiverHawks added two more runs to extend the NSU lead to 12-7.
The RiverHawks out-hit the Bison 15-to-9 and had seven extra-base hits.
Northeastern State heads next to Washburn for the opening round of the MIAA Tournament Friday for a best-of-three series with the Ichabods.
