Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 BELTON, Texas (May 13, 2016) – The task of reaching their goal will be a tall one, but the Oklahoma Christian Eagles remain alive in the Heartland Conference Championship baseball tournament after a roller-coaster Friday.

OC fell 7-2 to No. 3-ranked St. Edward's (Texas) at Red Murff Field to drop into the losers' bracket, but the Eagles received a strong pitching outing from Dylan Fazekas and three RBIs from Zac Cobble and downed St. Mary's (Texas) 4-1 in an elimination game.

OC (30-21) advanced to Saturday's championship round and will need to beat St. Edward's (42-10) twice to win the tournament and earn the Heartland's automatic bid to next week's NCAA Division II South Central Region tournament. The Eagles and Hilltoppers have split four games this season.

"It's been a long day," OC coach Lonny Cobble said. "Against St. Mary's, we had to overcome a little fatigue early. You had two teams that played in the heat of the day and then had to come back and play a second game. I'm just really proud of how our guys battled. Dylan did a great job for us. We were just hoping we could string enough hits together to get some runs and it worked out.

"We're definitely fighting an uphill battle. St. Edward's is the No. 1 seed for a reason and we've got our work cut out for us tomorrow."

Fazekas (4-5) scattered five hits in seven innings to outduel St. Mary's starter Cole Hybner (6-6), who pitched into the seventh inning for the Rattlers.

"The first time I pitched against them, I learned they were a swinging team," Fazekas said. "They don't really take a lot of pitches, so I just tried to go at them the best I could and just pound the zone. That's kind of my mentality all the time, to just stay in the zone with every pitch I can."

Both teams scored in the second inning. Kyle Lacy's solo home run over the fence in right-center field in the top of the inning put the Eagles ahead, but St. Mary's (32-21) tied the game as Donnie Perez singled up the middle, went to third base on a double by Angel Vega and scored on a groundout by Zach Johnson.

Jared Sterling doubled and scored on a squeeze bunt by Cobble in the fifth, allowing OC to edge ahead 2-1, and Zac Cobble delivered a two-run double down the right-field line in the seventh after Sterling and Austin Orth both had singled.

"I just tried to look for something in the zone and found what I was looking for and tried to take advantage of it," Zac Cobble said.

OC reliever Jake Moore walked the first two batters he faced in the eighth inning, but recorded three straight outs – including strikeouts of Perez and Vega – to end the threat. The Rattlers' Keith Funk tripled with one out in the ninth, but Moore fanned pinch-hitter Kyle Jenkins and Bryan Ramirez to finish off his second save of the tournament and fifth of the season.

In the Eagles' first game of the day, St. Edward's broke open a tie game with two runs in the fourth and three more in the fifth against OC starter Bradley Horn (5-5) and the Eagles stranded two runners on base in three different innings.

Three straight hits by the Hilltoppers put them up 1-0 in the first, but Orth's double to left-center field in the second scored Sterling, pulling OC even.

Kevin Mayo and Wesley Harris hit RBI singles for St. Edward's in the fourth to make it 3-1, and J.D. Arrowood's solo home run (his 17th longball of the season) highlighted the Hilltoppers' fifth inning.

Sterling walked and eventually scored on a foul fly ball by Alex Polston in the seventh for OC, but Gable Whitacre hit a solo home run in the ninth to seal the win for St. Edward's.

St. Edward's starter Collin Sherrod (10-1) struck out 10 batters in 6 2/3 innings.

Postgame interviews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_GNcTe3zRc