ARKADELPHIA, Ark. - Trailing 1-0 after four and a half innings, Henderson State plated four runs in the bottom of the fifth while allowing just one more run to take the midweek game against Mississippi College, 4-2.
Matthew Herron (1-0) earned the win in relief after seeing the second longest outing of HSU's eight pitchers, throwing 1.1 inning, allowing just one run on one hit while striking out two Choctaw batters.
Henry Coppens closed the contest, earning his fourth save of the season with a scoreless ninth inning that saw him give up just one hit while tallying one strikeout.
Luke Rice and
Landon Ervin led the offense with two hits a piece while
Kaden Argenbright extended his hold on the program's all-time RBI record with a two-RBI single as part of HSU's four-run fifth frame.
Lead-off hitter
Cal Jones opened the game with a single in the bottom of the first before neither team saw another hit until the third inning. Mississippi College posed the first real threat with a man on second and third with one out. Pitcher
Dawson Goines kept the game scoreless, however, with back-to-back outs to quiet the threat.
That threat would build some momentum in the fourth when MC scored the game's first run before being forced to strand another two base runners. The Reddies mirrored the Choctaws fortune and then some one inning later.
A lead-off walk from
Jordan Allen yielded consecutive hits from
Logan Cowart and
Louis Holt to tie the game, 1-1. Argenbright then came to the plate after Mississippi College claimed two outs to add two more runs to the scoreboard.
Rice capped off the four-run frame with a single that scored Argenbright. The 4-1 margin was cut to two with a single run in the sixth from MC, but another Choctaw base runner was left stranded in the eighth as the Reddies' pitching maintained the lead the rest of the way, 4-2.
Henderson St. (17-15, 11-7 GAC) will remain in Arkadelphia for this weekend's three-game series against first-place Harding. First pitch of game one is set for Friday, Mar. 29 at 6 p.m.
