MAGNOLIA, Arkansas – The University of Arkansas at Monticello baseball team rallied from an early deficit to force a tie in the eighth inning, but Southern Arkansas scored one in the bottom of the eighth and held on to beat the Weevils 5-4 on Saturday in the first of a three-game Great American Conference series.

With the loss, the Weevils (17-18, 12-14 GAC) have been eliminated from next week's GAC Championship Tournament, but can play the role of spoiler for the Muleriders (33-15, 18-10 GAC). SAU needs to beat UAM twice on Sunday to have a chance of winning the regular season GAC championship.

The Weevils are also in search of their fifth GAC series win of the season and can accomplish that by sweeping Sunday's double-header. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.

The Muleriders opened Saturday's game with three runs off two hits in the bottom of the first inning to take an early lead. UAM senior starting pitcher Austin Braddock settled down to retire nine out the next 10 batters, while keeping SAU scoreless in the second-fourth innings.

UAM trimmed the deficit down to one run with single runs in the third and fourth innings. Redshirt freshman Brian Ray hit an RBI single in the third for UAM's first run, while junior Nick Cerda collected his second homerun of the year with a two-out solo shot in the top of the fourth.

SAU went up 4-2 by scoring a run off a sacrifice fly in the sixth.

The Weevils rallied in the eighth inning to score two runs off two hits and an SAU fielding error. Ray collected his second RBI of the game off the error, and junior Corey Wood followed up with an RBI on a fielder's choice.

SAU's Carver Rademacher hit a two-out solo homerun to center field in the bottom of the eighth for the final score of the contest.