Box Score OKLAHOMA CITY (April 11, 2017) – Southern Nazarene, led by relief pitcher Zach Birkle, limited Oklahoma Christian to two hits and stunned the Eagles 8-5 on Tuesday in a nonconference game at Dobson Field.

SNU (4-33) issued 12 walks but OC (21-17) failed to take advantage, stranding 11 baserunners, eight of those in the early innings, when Crimson Storm pitchers were struggling with their control. Meanwhile, even though SNU left 12 baserunners, it also had nine hits against six OC pitchers.

"It's one of those things," OC coach Lonny Cobble said. "I wish I could say that's never happened to me before, but I've been coaching 25 years. It's probably not the last time it's going to happen, either. It's baseball. We had two hits and you're not going to win many games getting two hits.

"I just thought our intensity was bad from the first. I think we rolled out thinking those guys were going to roll over and you've got to remember they're also college athletes. They're going to compete, no matter what, and they wanted it more today than we did."

OC scored four runs in the second inning thanks to two hit batsmen and five walks – four of them consecutively – but didn't have a hit despite sending 10 men to the plate. That put OC up 4-2. SNU pulled within 4-3 in the fourth, when Josh Flowers tripled and scored on Jefferson Harris' double.

OC's final run came in the bottom of the fourth, when Kolton Brown's single to left field off Birkle (1-1) scored Josh Garbrecht with two outs, making it 5-3. Birkle, who entered the game having pitched only 18 innings this season with a 13.02 ERA, was masterful the rest of the way. He retired 10 straight batters and didn't allow the Eagles another baserunner until the eighth inning.

SNU took a 6-5 lead with a three-run seventh against OC reliever Connor Litterell (1-1), then took advantage of two errors and a wild pitch on a strikeout to add a pair of insurance runs in the ninth. Jared Price doubled with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and Gabe Rodery reached on an error, but Birkle struck out Zac Bycko to end the game.

Cobble said the Eagles must rebound from the unexpected loss and focus on its upcoming Heartland Conference series at Newman (Kan.), which will start Thursday.

"I think a priority for us is we have to win on the weekends (in conference games)," Cobble said. "We weren't going to get an at-large bid (to the NCAA Division II tournament) at this point, so the most important games are on the weekend. That's what we've got to focus on."