Box Score
Seventh-ranked Central Missouri made the most of fielding errors by Henderson State as the Mules swept a double-header from the Reddies winning 8-7 and 9-2, Saturday at Clyde Berry Field in Arkadelphia, Ark.
Henderson State, 20-14 overall, took a 3-0 lead in the third-inning of game one with the help of singles by
Zac Zdanowicz and
Carlos Rodriguez.
The Mules, 23-6 on the year, answered with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth as Kevin Gratza had a RBI sacrifice bunt and Seth Wheeler added a RBI single.
The Reddies pushed their lead to 4-2 in the bottom of the inning as Tadarius Hawkins drove in
Mitch Frey with a single. Frey reached on a two-out base-hit to left-center field earlier in the inning.
Central Missouri got a run back in the fifth on a Kyle Grieshaber RBI double, but HSU scored two runs in the sixth as Zdanowicz hit a two-run home run to make the score 6-3.
UCM got a run in the seventh on a Chase Graskewicz sacrifice bunt to pull within 6-4, but the Reddies answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the frame as
Michael Corso singled and later scored on a ground out by
Michael Schell.
Central Missouri rallied to tie the game with three unearned runs in the eighth with the help of two Reddie errors.
After an error, a walk, and an infield single loaded the bases for the Mules with two outs, Jon Cotter hit a routine groundball to third-base, but the throw to first was off target and UCM plated two runs.
Samuel Domingue tied the score at 7-7 with a single to score Trevor Jones who reached on an infield single.
UCM took the lead in the ninth as Brad Wilson reached on a one-out walk and scored on John Oropeza's double down the left field line to give UCM an 8-7 lead.
Relief pitcher Andrew Urban allowed a pair of infield hits in the ninth, but got
Michael Schell to groundout with the tying run on third to earn his third save of the season.
Jordan Wright took the loss for the Reddies after allowing four runs, only one earned, on three hits in two innings.
In the game two, the Mules took an early 2-0 lead in the second and broke the game open scoring four runs in the sixth.
UCM added two insurance runs in the seventh and another in the ninth while the Reddies struggled to put together a big inning
Henderson's runs came on a single by Andy Reynolds in the second and a ground out by
Ben Wainwright to score
Carlos Rodriguez who singled to lead off the sixth.
Austin Coble took the loss for the Reddies after giving up six runs on 10 hits in 5.2 innings to fall to 6-2.
Zdanowicz led the Reddies offensively going 5-for-8 with a double and a home run.
The two teams will play the final game of the series on Sunday with the first-pitch set for 1 p.m. at Clyde Berry Field.