Box Score OKLAHOMA CITY (March 25, 2017) –
Jake Collins was perfect early for Oklahoma Christian, while the Eagles' offense didn't arrive to the party until about the time he was leaving. Still, the combination was good enough for OC on a chilly Saturday at Dobson Field.
Collins allowed two runs in 5 2/3 innings and the Eagles scored all of their runs in their final four at-bats en route to a 7-3 win that gave OC a much-needed sweep of the three-game Heartland Conference baseball series.
OC (17-14, 4-5 Heartland) has won four straight games after falling below the .500 mark for the first time all season last Saturday, after St. Mary's (Texas) completed a series sweep the Eagles. OC now is in fifth place in the Heartland standings after beginning the series against TAMIU (6-18, 1-8) tied for last.
"This is a tough conference," OC coach
Lonny Cobble said. "From week to week, you've got to get the wins when you can. You can't get swept, like we did last week. You've at least got to take one, when you're on the road against a great team like St. Mary's. But coming back, you always want to take two of three, so we felt like we got one back in the win-loss column with this weekend's sweep."
Collins, a senior from Latta, retired the first nine batters he faced before falling behind 1-0 in the fourth, when Alexander Cabezas doubled and scored on Jeremy Valadez's single.
OC gave Collins a 2-1 lead in the fifth, with
Jake Baxter's leadoff double and a run-scoring single by
Garrett Wages keying the inning, but the Dustdevils tied the game in the sixth, with Cabezas reaching on a bunt single and scoring on a single by Valadez. Collins left the game one batter later before reliever Matt Fusselman (1-0) recorded the final out of the inning.
"Jake did a great job," Cobble said. "I wish he'd have gotten the decision. He got himself in a little trouble in the sixth and we felt like we needed to make a change. We turned it over to that bullpen and those guys did a great job. But we're just fortunate enough to have Jake come into that third rotation spot right now and he's doing a great job for us. He's not getting himself in trouble. He's pitching. He's not walking anybody."
The Eagles regained the lead at 3-2 in the sixth against reliever Erick Garay (0-1) as
Cory Duran singld and eventually scored when Garay hit Wages with a pitch with the bases loaded.
Duran's triple to center field keyed a two-run seventh inning for OC, making it 6-3, and consecutive run-scoring doubles by
Zac Bycko and
Chad Kennedy in the eighth extended the margin to 8-3.
The Eagles will face a pair of challenging road trips next week, traveling to Southwestern Oklahoma State for a nonconference game Tuesday before visiting Heartland (and national) power St. Edward's (Texas) next Friday and Saturday.
Lonny Cobble discusses the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-srKh8LqLY&feature=em-upload_owner
