Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 OKLAHOMA CITY (March 14, 2015) – During 16 of its 17 at-bats on Saturday at Dobson Field, Oklahoma Christian mostly scuffled at the plate, generating a combined two runs. But the Eagles had one glorious and decisive offensive inning that made the difference against Rogers State.
A six-run fifth-inning outburst proved enough for OC to beat the Hillcats 7-3 in the second game of a doubleheader at Dobson Field, enabling the Eagles to split Saturday's games and win the Heartland Conference baseball series.
Rogers State took Saturday's first game 3-1, after OC had won 3-0 in the series opener on Friday.
Rogers State (8-11, 1-5 Heartland) looked to be on its way to a sweep Saturday, up 3-0 in the second game after scoring twice in the top of the fifth. But OC (10-9, 2-4), which had only one hit to that point against Rogers State starter Matthew Shepard (2-2), sent 11 batters to the plate and had eight hits against Shepard and two relievers in the bottom of the inning.
Kyle Lacy's RBI single pulled the Eagles within 3-1, and with two outs, OC recorded five straight hits.
Derek Jones tied the game with a two-run double to left-center field, and
Ben McKenzie followed with a go-ahead single.
Jackson Matthews singled, then
Brady Baugh and
Ryan Ward added run-scoring singles to put the Eagles up 6-3.
The Hillcats put two runners on base in both the eighth and ninth innings. In the eighth, reliever
Jared Price escaped the jam with a strikeout and two groundouts. Lacy came on to pitch the ninth for OC and coaxed a double-play ground ball from Rogers State's Andrew Vanisi to end the game. The Eagles turned four double plays during the doubleheader.
Price (3-0) allowed two hits in 3 1/3 innings to pick up the pitching win for OC.
In the opener, starting pitchers
Kelby Reneau (for OC) and Michael Fusselman (for Rogers State) dueled for the better part of eight innings.
Fusselman (2-2) allowed only four hits in 7 2/3 innings. Two of those came in the fourth, when Matthews doubled to right-center field and
Brady Baugh singled him to third. Matthews scored on a groundout by
Austin Orth.
In the fifth, Rogers State's Cesar Rodriguez hit a solo home run off Reneau (2-3), with the baseball curling just inside the left-field foul pole.
Reneau recorded two quick outs in the eighth before giving up a single to Alex Cochran. Caleb Kohlmeyer followed with an infield single and Trae BoBo reached on a fielder's choice, with an error on the play allowing Cochran to score. Vanisi followed with a run-scoring single to make it 3-1.
T.J. Law pitched the final 1 1/3 innings for the Hillcats to record his first save.
OC will host East Central on Monday at 7 p.m. in a rescheduled game, then will host archrival Southern Nazarene on Tuesday at 2 p.m.
