Game one box
Game two box

STERLING, Kan. (April 4, 2009) – The Oklahoma Christian University baseball team crept within one game of .500 with two wins at Sterling College (Kan.) on Saturday. The Eagles picked up victories of 6-2 and 11-6 to move to 15-16 on the season.

Oklahoma Christian cranked six home runs in the doubleheader to improve to 6-6 in non-Sooner Athletic Conference games. The Eagles resume league play with a three-game series against No. 2 Oklahoma City University. Game one is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday at OCU.

Saturday's first game started with a bang, as Jordan Price and Ray Long led off with back-to-back homers. The Eagles then made it 3-0 in the second inning when Chance Nichols cranked a solo shot.

Sterling pulled within 3-2 with single-run efforts in the second and third frames, but OC scored twice in the fifth inning, and once in the seventh, to stay on top.

Long blasted his second dinger of the day – a two-run bomb – in the fifth, and Tyler Gipson stroked an RBI single in the seventh.

OC starter Tyler Sutton turned in his sixth start of five innings or more to improve to 2-2 in 2009. The senior right-hander went all seven innings and allowed two runs (one earned) on three hits. Sutton fanned a season-high eight batters and walked none.

Long, Price and Gipson each had three hits in the opener, with Long recording three RBIs and three runs in a 3-for-3 game. Price and Gipson were each 3-for-4 with one RBI.

In the nightcap, Sterling led 4-2 after two innings, but OC went on top for good with five runs in the third.

In the third, Zac Coshow followed up a Long triple with a homer to start the spurt. After Jeff Davis singled, Gipson joined the home-run parade with another two-run blast to make it 6-4 Eagles. Cody Carpenter capped the big inning with a two-out RBI single that plated Nichols.

Gipson bounced a fielder's-choice RBI in the fourth inning to up the lead to 8-5. Then OC scored three more times in the sixth inning to reach double-figure runs for the eighth time this season.

Davis singled in Long, Gipson hit a sacrifice fly, and Nichols scored Davis with a fielder's choice in the sixth to bring the final tally to 11-6.

Derek James earned the win in his third start of the year to improve to 1-1. The sophomore scattered five runs on six hits over four innings. Justin Ebert threw two innings and Ryan Kirk pitched the seventh for OC.

Coshow posted a 3-for-4 game with two doubles and two RBIs. White went 2-for-3 with two RBIs, and Davis was 2-for-2 with a RBI and three runs scored. Long was 2-for-5 in the second game to complete a 5-for-8 afternoon at the dish.

OC outhit Sterling 24-11 on the day. The Eagles batted .381 (24-for-63) as a team and held the Warriors to .216 hitting (11-for-51).

-OC-