Game one box
Game two box
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OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (April 18, 2009) – It took a late-inning rally for No. 1 Lubbock Christian University to escape Dobson Field with a victory over Oklahoma Christian University on Saturday.

Lubbock Christian won the opener 11-8 before taking the second game 5-0 in a five-inning, rain-shortened affair. The Eagles dropped to 17-21 overall and 9-14 in Sooner Athletic Conference games. The Chaparrals moved to 38-4 and 21-2 in the SAC.

The Chaparrals scored nine runs in the final two innings for a come-from-behind win in the first game. LCU's Ross Blondin hit a two-run homer that hugged the right-field foul pole to tie the game at 8-8 in the seventh. The Chaps sent three more runs across in the five-run inning to get their 20th conference win of the year.

The Eagles roughed up Lubbock Christian ace R.L. Eisenbach with seven earned runs in the first 3.2 innings to build a 7-2 lead by the fifth inning. Tyler Sutton did his part to keep OC in the game with only two runs allowed in the first five innings before LCU rallied in the sixth and seventh.

The big inning was the second, where OC got to Eisenbach for six runs. Cody Carpenter laced a RBI single through the hole on the right side to put OC up 1-0. Then after Jordan Price drew a bases-loaded walk, Zac Coshow smashed a grand slam over the right-field wall to make it 6-0 Eagles.

OC scored an insurance run in the fourth on a Quaid Johns base hit. LCU scored four times in the sixth, but OC got one back in the bottom half when Jeff Davis chased home Ray Long from second to put the Eagles ahead 8-6.

But the powerful LCU lineup got in gear with the five-run seventh to take over for good, and Jakob Cunningham retired OC in order in the bottom of half to seal it.

Coshow went 3-for-3 with the grand slam (6), four RBIs and a run scored. Long had a 2-for-4 showing with two runs. LCU was paced by J.J. Muse's 2-for-3, three-RBI game.

Ryan Kirk suffered the loss with four runs (three earned) in the seventh to fall to 0-2. Sutton worked 5.1 innings, giving up six runs (five earned) on nine hits. Cunningham (6-1) got the win in relief for the Chaps with 1.2 scoreless innings.

Ominous thunder clouds built in the west as game two began. The Chaps built a 5-0 lead by the fifth inning behind a dominating performance from starting pitcher Rene Garcia (8-0). The right-hander gave up just one hit to go with six whiffs.

LCU scored three runs in the top of the sixth before the weather got out of hand. A thunderstorm brought heavy rain, hail and lightning in the middle of the sixth inning that forced the umpires to call the game and erase the Chaps' top half.

Jordan Price was the only Eagle to get to Garcia at 1-for-2 with a first-inning single. Justin Ebert toed the rubber for OC, and allowed five runs (four earned) on nine hits in 4.1 innings.

The Eagles and Chaps will complete their three-game set with a nine-inning game on Sunday at Dobson Field. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.

-OC-