Alva Review-Courier -

BETHANY, Okla. — In the first Great American Conference doubleheader of the season, Southern Nazarene dropped both games Saturday to Henderson State 9-8, 9-3.

The Crimson Storm (4-6, 0-3 GAC) tried to start a late rally for the second straight game against Henderson State, but just like Friday's game, the Reddies (6-3, 3-0 GAC) did just enough to hold SNU off down the stretch.

In the first game Saturday, the Storm struck first in the opening inning on a double steal by Austin Cooper and Garrett Perez when Henderson tried to throw out Cooper at second. Henderson took a 3-1 lead in the top of the second, but the Storm answered in the bottom half with two to tie it. The first run of the inning came in on a Cole Wagner single to left before Cooper drove home Perez on a ground out to second to tie the game at 3-3.

Jake Vernon gave the lead back to SNU when he singled up the middle to score Tanner Maskey from second to make it 4-3. The Reddies though rallied with three in the top of the fourth and added another in the fifth to lead 7-4. Henderson State added two more to lead 9-4 with one in the sixth and seventh innings.

The Storm rallied in the bottom of the seven with four run to cut it to 9-8. Shelby Reese drove home the first two with a double to left before he scored on a wild pitch. SNU then took advantage of a Henderson error to get within one, but that was as close as the Storm came.

Reese went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs and a run scored. Maskey scored two runs while going 3-for-5 and Cole Lee went 2-for-4 with a run scored. Vernon also drove in a run while going 2-for-5. Jefferson Harris (0-1) took the loss after giving up six runs, only three earned, on eight hits. He struck out four in 3.2 innings of work. Cooper struck out seven in 5.1 innings of relief and gave up just three runs, two earned, on eight hits.

In the second game, the Reddies again got things going in the second inning as they scored two runs on a couple of hits. HSU tacked on another run in the third inning to push their lead to 3-0. The Reddies got two more in the fourth to make it 5-0. They added a couple of runs in the fifth to push the lead to 7-0 until the Storm were able to begin their rally.

SNU scored two in the fifth courtesy of a single by Austin Cooper that drove in two runs. Emilio Escobedolaunched his first home run as a member of the Crimson Storm in the sixth, a solo shot to left-center that cut the Reddie lead to 7-3. That was the closest that SNU came however, as Henderson scored two more runs in the seventh to push the game out of reach.

Cooper went 2-for-4 to lead Southern Nazarene, while Tanner Maskey went 2-for-3. Garrett Perez scored a run and went 1-for-3 at the plate, while Escobedo also went 1-for-3. SNU finished with six hits in the game.

David Gustafson got the start for the Storm on the mound, as he struck out two batters and gave up five earned runs on four hits in 3.1 innings of work. Cody Tolbert struck out a couple of batters in his 2.0 innings in relief for SNU.