BELTON, Texas (May 11, 2016) – The bad news for Oklahoma Christian's baseball team is that it has likely played its way out of a potential at-large berth into the NCAA Division II tournament. The good news? The Eagles control their own destiny in qualifying.
The winner of the Heartland Conference Championship tournament, which will begin Thursday at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor's Red Murff Field, will receive an automatic berth into next week's six-team Division II South Central Region tournament. Third-seeded OC (28-20) will begin its tournament quest at 6:30 p.m. against second-seeded Lubbock Christian (Texas).
OC took series from Lubbock Christian (35-15) and top-seeded St. Edward's (Texas) during the regular season, but lost a series to fourth-place St. Mary's (Texas) (31-19), which will face St. Edward's (40-10) in the tournament opener at 1 p.m. The results of those games will determine the schedule for Friday in the double-elimination event, which will continue through Saturday.
The Eagles debuted in the official South Central Region rankings at No. 8 last week, but after losing two of three to Arkansas-Fort Smith to end the regular season, OC fell out of those rankings this week. That means OC's only viable path into the regional tournament is to win the conference tournament.
"You want them to play motivated," OC coach
Lonny Cobble said. "Like I told them, going into a tournament like this, all you can ask is for it to be in your hands, and it is. We're not having to sit around and wait and hope some committee is going to pick us to be in. If we win three games, we're in. That's what they've got to do.
"You either go win it or you don't. You've got nobody to blame now."
The Eagles have been at their best this season against the best teams on their schedule. Against the region's current top four teams, OC has a stellar 7-2 record, having also swept Lone Star Conference power Texas A&M-Kingsville on the road in addition to the series wins over Lubbock Christian and St. Edward's in Oklahoma City.
"Everybody in this tournament is good," Cobble said. "That's what you want. You don't want any cupcakes. We've got to go out and beat the best guys. Hopefully we'll come out ready to go against good competition and show up."
OC likely will pitch its No. 1 starter,
Brennan Walker (6-3, 3.17 ERA) against Lubbock Christian. If the Chaparrals use the same rotation they did when playing at OC last month, they'll counter with the Heartland's newly minted pitcher of the year, Guillaume Blanchette (11-1, 1.56 ERA).
The Eagles won the regular-season series opener against Lubbock Christian 6-5, scoring four runs (two unearned) off Blanchette and rallying with two runs in the bottom of the seventh against the Chaparrals' bullpen. Lubbock Christian took the second game of the series 13-3, and after the series was delayed a day by rain, OC rallied from an eight-run deficit to win 11-10.
