ARKADELPHIA -- Arkadelphia native J.F. Matros surpassed two Great American Conference marks on Friday as Ouachita Baptist won, 5-4, to open its series with Southwestern Oklahoma State at Rab Rodgers Field.
Matros (3-4) threw his third complete game of the season and struck out a season-high nine batters. He now owns the GAC record for career starts with 49 and the record for career innings pitched with 309.2.
"I was just trying to give my team a chance to win today," Matros said. "Breaking the records today was great. It's a great honor and there are so many people that I have to thank for helping me accomplish this feat."
Matros got off to a rough start in the top of the first inning. Southwestern (21-19, 15-11) opened the scoring on a wild pitch.
The Tigers (12-32, 7-21) answered in the bottom half of the inning. Senior first baseman Kyle Alexander, of Conway, hit a double off of the top of the wall in right-center field to score senior left fielder Jakahari Howell, also of Arkadelphia, and freshman left fielder Tyler Riebock, from Rockwall, Texas.
Senior third baseman Preston Speers, of McKinney, Texas, hit a two-run home run to score himself and senior catcher Austin White, of Arkadelphia. The runs gave Ouachita a 4-1 lead with one out.
The Bulldogs pulled a run back in the third inning to make the score 4-2. Neither team would score again until the eighth inning.
The first run was scored on a double to center field. The second was an unearned run for Matros as a batter reached base on an error and Southwestern tied the game at 4-4.
Alexander led off the bottom of the inning with a double to left field. White bunted down the third base line and reached second base on a throwing error, which also allowed Alexander to score the go-ahead run.
Matros made short work of the Bulldogs in the final half inning. He allowed three earned runs on seven hits with nine strikeouts and three walks on 139 pitches in nine full innings.
The senior is tied for the team lead in wins and his 80-plus innings pitched is 20 more than the next most on the team. He has a 3.70 ERA with 65 strikeouts and 29 walks.
Alexander finished the game a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate with a pair of RBIs. Speers was 2-for-4 with the home run and two RBIs. White was 1-for-4 and was credited with the game-winning RBI.
Bulldogs starting pitcher Cooper Cantwell (5-5) threw his fourth complete game of the season in the losing effort.
Ouachita celebrated senior day on Saturday with a doubleheader to close the series with Southwestern.
Sports on 04/22/2018