Flawless starting pitching by Caleb Powers and defensive mistakes by Hendrix College helped the Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys begin their 2011 baseball season with a 6-2 victory at Tech Field in Russellville on Tuesday.
Powers worked seven perfect innings — 21 Warriors up and 21 Warriors down.
He struck out seven before giving way to relievers Cody Hatman, who pitched a scoreless eighth inning; and Zach Thomas, who allowed two unearned runs in the top of the ninth before slamming the door.
Arkansas Tech (1-0) only collected three base hits against the seven different Hendrix pitchers who took the mound. But the Warriors’ hurlers were undone by their defense. Hendrix committed five errors which led to three unearned runs for the Wonder Boys.
Tech took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning on Matt Johnson’s sacrifice fly. The Wonder Boys added single runs in the fourth inning (Madison Beaird RBI walk) and the fifth inning (Josh Riley RBI double) to build a 3-0 advantage.
Michael Rezin drew a bases loaded walk for the Wonder Boys in the bottom of the seventh to make it 4-0. Johnson stole home and Nick Makris delivered an RBI ground out in the eighth inning to give Tech a more comfortable 6-0 edge.
Three Wonder Boy errors in the ninth inning allowed the Warriors (0-2) to put two runs on the board, but Thomas was able to induce a ground out by Jacob Perschke to end the game with two base runners stranded.
Arkansas Tech is scheduled to host St. Cloud State for a three-game series at Tech Field on Saturday, Feb. 12, and Sunday, Feb. 13.
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