ARKADELPHIA, Ark. - The Union University baseball team opened the 2019 season with a 6-4 win over Ouachita Baptist University in a game played at Henderson State University. It was the first game of the season for both teams.

Union scored the season's first runs on the seasons first home run in the top of the first inning. Nolen Milton hit a 2-run homer, scoring Charlie Ellis to give Union a lead they never gave up. An Ellis double in the second added a third run. OBU scored a pair in the third, but another long-ball from the Bulldogs extended the lead. Hayden Lewis hit a 2-run homer, also driving in Ellis to put Union up 5-2 in the fifth. OBU got its first homer of the season to cut the Union lead back down to 5-4. Josh Frantz added an insurance run in the seventh on a single, driving in Milton. Union won by that 6-4 final. 

Logan Portis started for Union, tossing four innings, giving up three hits, two runs with six strikeouts and a walk. Ryan Mets (1-0) earned the win, tossing four innings in relief, allowing four hits with two runs, two K's, and two walks. Walker Adkisson earned the save working the ninth, allowing one hit and getting one strikeout. 

Each of the top six hitters for Union got at least one hit in the game as the Bulldogs out-hit OBU 11-8. Both teams committed one error. Ellis, Milton, Frantz, Eli Thibado, and Spencer Shultz all had two hits in the game. Milton and Lewis led with two RBI each. 

Union will play Henderson State and Ouachita Baptist Saturday in back-to-back games in Arkansas. 

-UNION-