The Arkansas State baseball squad looked to bounce back after being swept by New Orleans last weekend in the first of two midweek contests this week against winless Mississippi Valley State earlier tonight. 

1st Inning:

Red Wolves starting pitcher Brandon Anderson suffered a shaky first by popping up the lead-off batter before hitting Eric Johnson II in the head with a pitch. Johnson would then steal second base, followed by a walk and a wild pitch to bring Mississippi Valley State runners to second and third with only one out. Anderson would then recover and leave the Delta Devils to forfeit their free bases to end the top of the first inning.

A-State would then have a chance to see what they could do at the batter’s box, and started out strong with Liam Hicks registering a lead-off single followed by a double by Drew Tipton to move runners to second and third with no outs. Ben Klutts would bat in Hicks to score the first run of the night, but Tipton would be tagged out right at home plate. Tyler Duncan would get on with another in-field single and error bringing A-State to an early 2-0 lead before the end of the inning.

2nd Inning:

Anderson pitched out of the strike zone four straight times to open the inning, walking the Delta Devils’ leading man of the inning. He would quickly settle in afterwards however, striking out Angel Maldonado and Antonio Walker and A-State’s Tipton would field a line-out to quickly discard the Delta Devils in the second.

Karsen Reid made his way on base after taking a pitch to the back of his left shoulder, but that was as much action as the Red Wolves could muster in the second inning as the score remained the same heading into the third.

3rd Inning:

Anderson continued his hot streak from the second inning by striking out the first couple of batters of the inning. Aaron Brazelton helped Anderson complete the 1-2-3 inning by grounding out after a weak liner towards first base for the quickest inning of the night to that point.

Klutts led off batting for the Red Wolves in the third inning and popped up a high ball in foul territory that was found by Maldonado to score the first out of the inning for the Delta Devils. Tyler Duncan didn’t do much better by striking out, and Mississippi Valley State responded with a 1-2-3 inning of their own after Deshazier grounded out to first.

4th Inning:

More strikeouts would ensue for Brandon Anderson to begin the fourth inning after putting out Kanaikai Gaughen on strikes, but Chase Colding would respond with a one-out double to put an end to Anderson’s streak of seven straight outs. Colding would then move up to third after a low pitch got away from A-State catcher Ray Cullen. That mistake proved consequential after a groundout brought Colding to home plate, and the Delta Devils their first run of the night.

Sky-Lar Culver started off the bottom of the fourth inning with a lead-off single for the Red Wolves to record his first hit of the night. Colten Nix followed up with a double to move himself and Culver into scoring positions with no outs to the name of the Delta Devils. Cullen Ray then took a pitch to his back to load the bases. Karsen Reid and Liam Hicks registered RBI singles to continue the Red Wolves’ onslaught to extend A-State’s lead to 4-1. The Delta Devils finally got their first out of the inning due to a fielder’s choice, but it cost them yet another run. At the end of all the action, the Red Wolves took a 5-1 lead at the end of the fourth inning.

5th Inning:

Anderson moved his way up to ten strikeouts on the evening after his second 1-2-3 inning of the night.

Culver led off for the Red Wolves and flew-out to left center field to give Mississippi Valley State its first out early on in the inning. Nix would make better of it though, recording his second hit of the night with a one-out single. Nix would get himself picked off at first base to bring A-State down two outs. But a walk and a single paired with an error brought Cullen Ray home to bring A-State their sixth run of the game.

6th Inning:

Brandon Anderson closed out his evening with another 1-2-3 inning, finishing the night with 13 strikeouts and only allowing one hit and run.

Duncan recorded the first hit of the inning for the Red Wolves after Klutts flew-out to left center. Deshazier would meet a similar fate to Klutts to bring the inning to two outs with Duncan on first base. A walk and another fly-out later, the Delta Devils completed their first scoreless inning since the third.

7th Inning:

Will Nash opened his pitching performance well, striking out two and flying out another to quickly retire Mississippi Valley State.

Freshman Joshua Wilson capped off another solid defensive outing for the Delta Devils with a long winded dive for a grounder in between first and second and threw out Liam Hicks.

8th Inning:

Another pair of strikeouts for Nash completed with a ground-out left the Red Wolves with just three outs left to record for a victory.

Ben Klutts got himself on base with a one-out single, but another nice defensive play from the Delta Devils, this time a diving catch by Eric Johnson II put an end to the eighth inning.

9th Inning:

Jack Jumper closed out the evening with two strikeouts of his own to cement the Red Wolves’ 6-1 victory over Mississippi Valley State.

With the victory, Arkansas State improve to 3-4 on the season while the Delta Devils fall to 0-6. The two teams will meet again tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m.

Categories: Sports

Tags: baseball