OKLAHOMA CITY (March 30, 2019) – Zachary Pape stood tall on the pitching mound, Oklahoma Christian took advantage of most of its scoring opportunities and the Eagles sealed a Heartland Conference series win by beating Texas A&M International 9-3 on a chilly Saturday afternoon at Dobson Field.

After a disappointing 11-9 loss in the series' second game on Friday, OC (20-8, 4-2 Heartland) rebounded to move into a tie for second in the league standings, two games behind Lubbock Christian (Texas). The Eagles will host Lubbock Christian for a key three-game series next Friday and Saturday, after a nonconference home game Tuesday against archrival Southern Nazarene.

If you had told OC coach Lonny Cobble two months ago his team would be where it is in the standings and ranked seventh in the South Central Region, he'd probably have taken it, but he knows they could be in even better position.

"You always go, 'Well, you should have won this one,' but you can also look at games that we probably should have lost that we won," Cobble said. "The good thing about this team is they don't ever quit. We were down 9-0 (yesterday). If you watch the way we play, the longer we play, the better we hit and the more runs we start to score. If we can just keep ourselves out of early holes and early trouble, I think we're fine.

"We will definitely have our work cut out for us this week. We have four tough games and we're going to have to figure out a way to not get in early holes and have to battle out. We spend a lot of energy battling out of holes and we need to figure out a way to keep our heads above water early."

For the third time in as many games against TAMIU (10-22, 1-5), the Eagles fell behind on Saturday. The Dustdevils had four singles in the third inning, including run-scoring hits from Jorge Napoles and Matthew Rosales that gave them a 2-0 lead.

But Pape (4-1) settled down and pitched a career-high seven innings, striking out five while allowing only three runs. Eventually, his teammates gave him a lead with which to work.

"That was probably Zach's best game all year," Cobble said. "He looked really good. He got in a little bit of a jam in the third inning but then he battled out of it and settled down and went back to work."

OC's first hit off TAMIU starter Ruben Solis (0-7) was a RBI single by Hunter Markwardt that scored Kevin Collyar, who Solis hit with a pitch to start the bottom of the third. The Eagles tied the game in the fourth, when Garrett Wages' delayed steal of second base drew a throw from Rosales, the TAMIU catcher, which sailed into center field, allowing Blake Empkey – who was on third base – to score easily.

Three infield singles and a two-run double off by Empkey off the right-field wall gave the Eagles a 5-2 lead in the fifth. Collyar and Grant Lake each doubled in a two-run sixth and the Eagles scored twice more in the seventh without a hit, thanks to two walks, two wild pitches by TAMIU reliever Joseph Garza-Delapena, an error and a sacrifice fly.

Empkey, a freshman from Bedford, Texas, finished the week with 14 RBIs in four games, including a Tuesday win at Central Oklahoma.

"That is really good, especially for a true freshman," Cobble said. "We had four freshmen playing on the field today with Lake, Collyar, Empkey and (Brendon) Bavester. They're all playing well. They kind of feed off each other. What's fun is when they get rolling, the whole team seems to roll."

Lake, who entered the game with three hits this season, went 2 for 4 with two runs scored, while Markwardt also had two hits for the Eagles, who scored their nine runs on just seven hits. Anthony Handel went 3 for 5 for TAMIU, but all 11 of the Dustdevils' hits were singles.