OKLAHOMA CITY (Feb. 21, 2020) – The wind was blowing out to left field on Friday afternoon at Dobson Field and Texas-Tyler took full advantage.
After hitting eight home runs in their first 10 games this baseball season, the Patriots smacked five homers – all solo shots – en route to a 10-7 win over Oklahoma Christian in the first of what's scheduled to be a four-game Lone Star Conference series.
OC (3-8, 3-8 LSC) led twice early and later rallied from a three-run deficit to tie the game, but Texas-Tyler (10-1, 10-1) – in its second year of transition from NCAA Division III into Division II – continually had an answer, rolling up 15 basehits, eight of them for extra bases. Meanwhile, the Eagles stranded 11 baserunners, six of them in scoring position in the fourth, fifth and eighth innings.
Grant Lake went 2 for 3 with three RBIs for the Eagles, including a solo home run that was the first first-inning run surrendered this season by Texas-Tyler. The Patriots tied the game in the top of the second inning on the first of two RBI singles by Corbin Giesendorff.
OC went up 2-1 when
Michael DiFiore doubled and scored on a sacrifice fly by
Tanner White in the fourth, but consecutive home runs off OC starter
Gabe Rodery by Riley Jepson and Bowie Farris in the fifth put the Patriots ahead 3-2 and two more runs in the sixth extended that margin to 5-2.
The Eagles tied the game with a three-run sixth, keyed by a RBI single by
Kevin Collyar and a two-run single by Lake. Texas-Tyler seized the lead again with three homers in the seventh off OC reliever
Cody Johnson (0-1), by leadoff hitter Tanner Roach, Jordan Gochenour and Lukas Polanco to go up 8-5.
Errett Edwards' two-run, pinch-hit double in the eighth pulled OC within 8-7, but the Patriots tacked on single insurance runs in the eighth and ninth innings.
Reliever Max Page (3-0) pitched 2 1/3 innings to pick up the win for Texas-Tyler, while Matthew McMillan tossed two scoreless innings of relief for his third save.
The teams will play a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. Saturday and a single game Sunday, also at 1 p.m.
