ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — Spencer Taack pitched eight innings on Friday night and No. 11 Henderson State scattered 12 hits to cruise to a 10-3 series-opening win over Northwestern Oklahoma State at Clyde Berry Field.

The win improved the Reddies to 18-4 overall and 10-3 in GAC play. HSU is now 13-2 at home this season.

Taack put together the longest outing of his career to move to 6-0 in seven starts this spring. The senior right-hander faced 31 batters and allowed three runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts and no walks. 

Nine-hole hitter Nick Butler led Henderson at the plate and finished 3-for-4 with three RBIs, a double and a home run. Cade Tucker also hit a two-run shot in the first inning and added two hits and three RBIs. 

NWOSU took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first, but Tucker's two-run blast to right center flipped the script in the bottom half of the inning and put the Reddies up, 2-1.

After the Rangers tied the game in the third, HSU put together its biggest inning of the contest to break the game open. Henderson used two hits, two walks, an error and a hit batter to plate four runs and seize a 6-2 advantage. Both Bryson Haskins and Jacob Carroll had RBIs in the inning.

An RBI double from Tucker in the fourth extended the lead out to 7-2, and although Northwestern got one back on a wild pitch in the fifth, it never truly threatened again. Butler's three-run shot in the seventh provided HSU with more than enough cushion, as the Reddies rolled to their 10th conference win.

Henderson was 12-for-32 (.375) at the plate as a team and 7-for-17 (.412) with runners in scoring position. 

The Reddies will look to win the series tomorrow when they face NWOSU in a doubleheader beginning at 12 p.m.