Alva Review-Courier -

ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – The Ouachita Tiger's Baseball team secures its first victory of the season against rival Henderson State 5-3.

Coach Luke Howard picks up his first career victory as the Tiger's head coach with the win. Adam Bahloul had a career night from the mound going six innings with 12 strikeouts, giving up only two hits and not allowing a run.

The rivalry matchup started with a pitcher's duel as there combined was five strikeouts in the first Inning. Bahloul would carry his pitching prowess into the second inning striking out three of the four batters he faced. The Tigers in the top of the third would take advantage of the Henderson State mistakes. Bo Sutton led off the inning for Ouachita and was struck by a pitch. He would advance twice on wild pitched by the Reddies and score on a sacrifice fly by Louis Steen. In the bottom of the third Bahloul would not let up striking out two of the three batters he faced.

Leading off the fourth inning Tyler Riebock smashed a homerun over the right field wall to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead. Ouachita would get a runner in scoring position with a walk and an error but were unable to score them. In the bottom of the fourth Bahloul would add to his strikeout total by picking up his ninth and tenth. In the fifth inning the Tigers would use two walks, a single and a ground ball out to score their third run of the day. In the bottom half the Tigers would see Bahloul's no hitter bid fail as he allowed a hit to the Reddies, but they would not score in the inning. In the sixth each team would bat four players and the score would remain the same after the inning.

In the seventh inning singles by Aaron Studdard and Cade McBride would add another run to the Tiger lead. In the bottom half senior Abe Young, who pitched for the first time since coming off of surgery, relieved Adam Bahloul. After three batters, he was replaced by junior Tyler Duck. The Reddies would score three runs, but Duck would stop the bleeding as he forced a ground ball to freshman Chris Willard who turned a double play.

In the eight Hunter Gautreaux doubled and Chris Willard singled to give Ouachita another run and extend their lead to 5-3. Two runs is all that Tyler Duck would need as he faced seven batters in the last two innings picking up the save for Ouachita.

Quick Facts

Adam Bahloul becomes the first Ouachita pitcher since Connor Eller in 2016 to have double digit strikeouts.

Bahloul struck out his first six batters and eight of the first 10.

Coach Howard is in his first year at Ouachita as a head coach, but he was here as an assistant coach from 2008-2011.

Tyler Riebock had a great day going a combined 5-9 including five RBIs and two homeruns.

The Tigers struck out only eight times compared the Reddies 15.

In the last four meetings with Henderson State the Tigers are 3-1.

All four of those games were played at Henderson State.

Ouachita returns to action at 3:00 PM on February 2 as they face off against Union (Tenn.) at Henderson State's field.