The south Arkansas air could have been cut with a knife as a humidity percentage north of 60 blanketed the southwestern corner of the Natural State on last weekend.
That same knife could have been used to cut through the tension that developed in the latter half of the evening's NCAA DII Central Region #2 title game between (2) Southern Arkansas and (3) Henderson State.
Meeting for the seventh time in 2022, for the third time in the past 11 days and for the second straight night, the Muleriders and Reddies delivered an instant classic, one that ended with a walk off homer by senior Tucker Burton in the bottom of the ninth which gave SAU a 12-11 win over HSU and capped an overall wild weekend from Walker Stadium at Goodheart Field that saw four of the six regional contests decided by a single run.
Burton's blast, his 19th of the season, was monstrous both literally and figuratively. In the literal sense that it left the yard hurriedly near the deepest part of the ballpark and in the figurative sense that the shot sent Southern Arkansas into this weekend's Central Super Regional where sixth-year head coach Justin Pettigrew's squad will play for a berth in the DII Baseball World Series for the second consecutive season.
On Friday at Goodheart Field, the Muleriders square off against Augustana at 6 p.m. in the best of three series. The second battle will follow at 2 p.m. Saturday, followed by a (if necessary) third matchup 30 minutes later.
In the Central Region title game, the Muleriders (44-11) rallied from an 8-3 deficit two nights after overcoming a 9-2 disadvantage in its NCAA postseason opener. Henderson State struck for four first inning runs off of SAU starter Parker Abrego. As they have proved to do all tournament long, the Muleriders answered with two runs in the bottom of the second inning as sophomore Chris Lyles hunted a fastball and sent it down the leftfield line for a two-run jack to cut the deficit in half heading into the third.
HSU scored on a wild pitch in the third, but SAU managed to earn that run back in the next half frame as junior Brett McGee, who tripled with one out, scored on a muffed throw down to first in an attempt to nab freshman Brandon Nicoll following a dropped third strike.
The Reddies placed three more runs on the board in the team's fourth trip to the plate, but it was the Muleriders who controlled the fifth and sixth innings. McGee singled in a run and freshman Jakob Machuca belted a two-run home run over the advertising signage in left centerfield to pull SAU to within two runs at 8-6 through five innings of play.
In the sixth, Nicoll, while facing the GAC's top reliever in Brayden Bebee, cranked the Muleriders' second grand slam in as many days to stake the hosts to its first lead of the night at 10-8. The bomb was reminiscent of his two-run walk off shot in the ninth inning of the first meeting between the two squads in early April. However, this time the result was short lived as Henderson State responded with three runs to regain the advantage at 11-10 through seven.
Nicoll was not done coming up clutch as an eighth inning double, which came with two outs in the frame, made sure that a walk to sophomore Chris Sutton would not be wasted as the latter scored from first to tie the game at 11 and give a surge of late-game energy to an already electric crowd.
Certainly not to be lost in the victory is the effort of the three arms Southern Arkansas utilized on Saturday night. Abrego went four innings before HSU managed three more runs in the fourth to grab control of the contest. Sophomore Chance Bolter entered in the fifth and stranded the bases loaded in his first frame of work which was immediately followed by a three-run home half by the Muleriders. Bolter tossed a clean sixth inning holding the Reddies off of the scoreboard, but HSU was able to get to the reliever in the seventh. Sophomore Santos Sosa (W, 2-2) worked the eighth and ninth innings and allowed just an eighth inning hit and a ninth inning walk to keep HSU at bay and set the table for the dramatic finish.
On the fifth pitch of the at bat, Burton, the first and only batter to the plate for Southern Arkansas in the ninth, hammered a 2-2 pitch from HSU's David Vilches out to centerfield to break the tie and extend the Muleriders' season.
McGee and Nicoll each delivered two hits. McGee also became the Great American Conference's single season walks leader with 57 after drawing two on Saturday night.
Nicoll delivered five RBI, while Machuca and Lyles each added a pair of RBI. Lyles walked twice and was HBP once. McGee scored three times with Burton and Sutton crossing twice.