MONTICELLO, Ark. --- Washburn baseball staved off a late Southern Arkansas push on Friday to hold on for 5-3 victory at Weevil Stadium in Monticello, Arkansas. The result tied the season series at 1-1 as the Ichabods (4-1) avenge a loss to the Muleriders (3-2) during last week's slate of games in Texas.
 
WU jumped out to an early 2-0 lead as Darian Abram and Riley Krane each scored for the Ichabods during the first. Krane stretched his consecutive runs batted-in streak to five games with a hard hit single up the middle to drive home Abram. Josh Crosby then tallied his first of three hits on the day with a single to center allowing Krane to score from second. Krane advanced to second on an eeror.
 
In the fifth, Abram easily scored from third to make it 3-0 thanks to an RBI double from Crosby. Abram reached third via a wild pitch after initially getting on with a single before advancing to second on a steal.
 
The Ichabods tacked on two more in the eighth thanks to timely hitting from Krane as he connected with a two-out single to left-center allowing Abram and Bowe Behymer to cross home.
 
Then in the visitor half of the ninth, Mark Fontenot helped Southern Arkansas escape the shutout as result of an RBI single. James Trevanion then hit one back to the mound for the first out while a SAU runner came in to score making it 5-2. After a sacrifice fly accounted for the third run the Mulerider comeback fell short as a routine ground ball to third ended the inning and the game.
 
In his second outing of the year Nick Silva was on-point tossing a total of 113 pitches with 72 for strikes and 19 first-pitch strikes while allowing just one hit. Silva, who was credited with the win to move to 2-0 on the year, kept SAU scoreless throughout 7.2 innings to finish with eight strikes and three walks. Marcus McKinney then made a 1.1 inning relief appearance allowing three runs on four hits and one walk.
 
Collectively, Washburn had seven hits, no errors and 10 runners left on-base, while SAU finished with four hits, one error and left seven runners stranded.
 
Krane led the way for the Ichabods with three RBIs and a 2-for-4 day at the plate. Crosby meanwhile followed with two runs batted-in. Abram was 1-for-1 to go along with two walks and three runs. Cole Gardner also collected a hit as he finished 1-for-3.
 
Washburn returns action on Saturday in its first true road tilt of the season as it takes on Arkansas-Monticello in doubleheader action with game one slated for an 11 a.m. first pitch and game two at 2 p.m.