ENID, Okla. - If there is one word to describe South Arkansas College’s performance at the NJCAA Division II World Series thus far, it would be dominant.
For the second straight day, the Stars needed only five innings to pick up a victory, knocking off No. 2 seed Lansing (Mich.) Community College 11-1 Sunday at David Allen Memorial Ballpark.
SouthArk (47-16), the No. 7 seed, takes on No. 6 seed Southeastern (Iowa) Monday night at 7:15 p.m.
The Stars hit three home runs for the second straight day with Ryan Riggs homering twice and Jacob Ambriz adding a solo homer.
Hunter Royal (8-3) fired a two-hitter to give the Stars their second straight complete game. He allowed one unearned run, walked five and struck out three.
South Ark scored two runs in the first on Riggs’ first homer, his fifth of the year, which also scored Roc Hawthorne, who led off with the first of his three triples in the game.
The Stars broke the game open in the third.
After Gabe Spedale walked, Hawthorne tripled to score Spedale.
Trace Shoup followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0. Riggs doubled and later scored on a ground out to third by Kyle Tolley. Elijah Nichols capped the scoring with an RBI single that scored Ambriz, who had walked.
Riggs’ second homer of the game and sixth of the year came in the fourth and followed Hawthorne’s third triple. Ambriz then connected for his 11th homer of the season.
Spedale drove in a pair of runs with a sacrifice fly in the fifth.
“We came out firing again,” said SouthArk coach Cannon Lester. “Roc led off with triples and Riggs hit two oppo(site-field) bombs. Hunter wasn’t great, but he had a couple of big pickoffs, and we turned an electric double play in the middle innings. We did a good job of adding on in each inning and putting pressure on them.”
Lansing (47-11) will play an elimination game Monday against No. 10 seed Frederick (Md.).