Rangers sweep past Southeast on Opening Day

Tucker Burton and Brandon Holdren provided the excitement and sophomore ace Jose Suero delivered the lightning on Friday en route to carrying Ranger College to a sweep of an Opening Day twinbill at Ellis Burks Field. Ranger took Game 1 by a 17-7 count before riding Suero's right arm to an 8-1 decision in the finale.

Burton and Holdren both cranked out home runs in Rangers' romp in the opener. A sophomore from Granger, Texas, Burton provided the big blow, hammering a three-run shot over the wall in right in the home half of the first inning and powered RC to a quick 5-2 lead.

After Ranger had surrendered a pair of runs in the top of the first, Isaiah Ortega-Jones got the Rangers' going in the bottom of the frame. He led off the game with a triple and raced home moments later on a single off the bat of Holdren. Kaleb Thompson and Victor Buenos followed by reaching base via back-to-back error and set the stage for Burton's first homer.

Holdren added to Rangers' fireworks show in the second with a solo homer to right.

As a team, Ranger finished the game with 13 hits, nine extra-base hits. Among the extra-base hits were a pair of doubles by Thompson and triples from Angel Velez and Alex Garcia.

Holdren with 4-for-4 from the plate in Game 1. He scored three times and finished with four runs batted in.

Austin Smith overcame a slow start on the mound to pick up the win in Game 1. He worked 3.1 innings and finished with seven strikeouts.

Suero dominated Southeast in Game 2. The hard-throwing righthander fanned 11 of the 18 batters he faced in five innings.

Noah Winkelman paced the Rangers' offensive efforts in Game 2. He went 2-for-3 from the plate with a double and a triple.

Ranger will play Mountain View College on Saturday, Feb. 2.