ARKADELPHIA – Trailing by four runs, but with the bases loaded in the visiting half of the sixth inning, true freshman Brett McGee turned on a pitch from Arkansas-Fort Smith starter Javon Rigsby and belted it out to right field for a game-tying grand slam. SAU added four more runs with two outs in the frame as part of a 9-6 victory on a cold Thursday afternoon at Clyde Berry Field in Arkadelphia.
The Muleriders’ (3-1) eight runs in the sixth inning came on five hits and a pair of Lion fielding errors. UAFS, after carrying a 5-1 lead through five innings, managed to answer in the home half of the sixth with a single run, but would muster only one hit in the final 3.1 innings courtesy of another solid relief effort from junior Matt Kortendick, who earned the save after preserving the three-run advantage.
Kortendick (S, 1) took over for senior starter Garrett Walker, who after surrendering three runs in the first inning, settled down to allow just two hits, while stranding three baserunners from the second through fourth innings. He finished with seven strikeouts.
An RBI single from the bat of senior Jansen McCurdy supplied the Muleriders with their first run of the game in the fifth inning, but the Lions added two more runs in the following half frame to take a 5-1 lead.
McGee’s blast in the sixth got the ball rolling and moments later, sophomore Cole Boyd added two more runs as he cranked his first home run of the season out to right field putting SAU up 7-5.
The final two insurance runs came on a two-RBI single by junior Mason Peterson which ended Rigsby’s day on the hill, but not before the damage was done.
McGee finished 3-for-5 with a double and a homerun to go along with four RBI. The Muleriders banged out a dozen hits.