SouthArk downs No. 11 Western Oklahoma State

ENID, Okla. — To say that South Arkansas College's bats are hot right now would be an understatement.

On Friday, the Stars reached double figures for the fourth straight game in a 14-2 win over No. 11 Western Oklahoma State Friday in the NJCAA Division II Plains District Tournament.

The Stars (35-20), the East Division's No. 2 seed, advanced to play Saturday at 4 p.m. against the winner between Arkansas-Rich Mountain and Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa, who played Friday's final game.

The Stars, winners of five straight, have scored 50 runs in their last four games, including 29 in the first two games of the tournament.

But what makes those numbers even more impressive is that this production has come against teams that have spent time in the NJCAA Division II poll at some point during the season.

On Friday, the Stars trailed 2-1 before scoring the final 13 runs of the game with seven coming in the fifth to win their second straight game via the sportsmanship rule in six innings.

Gabe Kuttenkuler opened the scoring with a solo homer in the first, his fifth of the year.

The Pioneers (38-17), the West Division champions and runner-ups to SouthArk in last year's tournament, took the lead with two runs in the second, but it was all SouthArk from that point on.

Gavin Murphy hit a two-run homer, his

ninth, to put the Stars ahead 3-2 in the fourth. SouthArk then put the game away in the fifth.

Kyle Tolley, who homered in Thursday's first-round win over Northern Oklahoma-Enid, singled home a run to make it 4-2.

Murphy followed with a two-run single and Chase Irby added an RBI single to make it 7-2.

Dawson Szymanski, who made a diving catch with two runners on base in Thursday's win, drilled a three-run homer, his ninth, to extend the lead to 10-2.

The Stars ended it in the sixth with Jacob Ambriz driving in a run with a sacrifice fly before Murphy drove in his fourth run of the game with a run-scoring single, his third hit of the day.

Irby, who drove in four runs on Thursday, continued his torrid stretch in the postseason with a two-run single for his third of the game, which also raised his RBI total in the tournament to seven in two games.

Ryan Ursery (10-3) bounced back from his shortest outing of the year to go the distance with a six-hitter to become SouthArk's first-ever 10-game winner in a single season.

He issued no walks and struck out six while allowing one earned run.

For the second straight day, the Stars had eight players register at least one hit with five racking up multi-hit games.

Murphy and Irby had three hits with Tolley, Szymanski and Ian McCubbin each finishing with two apiece for the Stars, who had 15 in the contest.