Carlos Aranda hits grand slam in Redhawks' home opening loss

Carlos Aranda made an impressive Capaha debut on Wednesday by hitting his first career grand slam in his first home game as a Redhawk.

“I thank God for the opportunity to be a Redhawk and have fun with the boys,” Aranda said.

The senior designated hitter was the lone bright spot in an otherwise disastrous 14-8 home-opening loss to Evansville. Aranda’s slam put the Redhawks within two runs, making it a 7-5 contest in the bottom of the third inning.

“I knew the fastball was coming because he walked the guy before me,” Aranda said.

SEMO is Aranda’s fourth school in four years. The Dominican native’s career started at Monroe College, then Ellsworth Community College, where he earned NJCAA Division II First Team All-Region honors. He spent last season in Northern Illinois, where he led the Huskies in batting average (.320), on-base percentage (.457), slugging percentage (.513), and home runs (7).

“He’s a really good player,” SEMO head coach Andy Sawyers said. “He’s a senior transfer, so he’s old and he’s a .300 lifetime Division I hitter, he led Northern Illinois in hitting and he’s gotten a lot of D1 hits. We expected him to play like that.”

Aranda said the difference between NIU and SEMO is a matter of where he hits in the lineup.

“As a Husky, I was the leadoff guy,” Aranda said. So now I’m hitting in the fifth hole, sixth hole, so I have like another job. That is to bring runs in, trying to hit the ball in the gap to score a run, so it’s like a whole different job.”

Despite his success at the plate, the Huskies were anything but. After NIU finished 14-40 last season, Aranda transferred to SEMO, who were coming off back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances.

“We are a winning team,” Aranda said, “so that made my decision faster and quicker.”

The Redhawks have not been doing a lot of winning as of late. SEMO (2-7) won the season opener at Central Arkansas and scored 23 runs against Abilene Christian but have struggled everywhere in between.

“It’s not really the new guys that are hurting us right now, Sawyers said. “We’ve got a lot of old, good players that aren’t playing well.”

Two big innings doomed the Redhawks against the Purple Aces. They gave up six runs in the third inning and five runs in the eighth inning. The Redhawks went with a committee of bullpen arms and allowed 14 runs on 16 hits.

“I thought it was pretty below average,” Sawyers said. “I was super disappointed. I didn’t think we were competitive.”

The Redhawks’ homestand continues on Friday at 3 p.m., with a three-game series against Milwaukee.