OKLAHOMA CITY (April 6, 2021) – In a 20-0 loss at Central Oklahoma on March 16, Oklahoma Christian's pitching staff, in a word, struggled. But in the rematch with the Bronchos on Tuesday, it was many of those same pitchers who made a positive difference for OC.

Nine OC pitchers combined for 11 strikeouts and had only one bad inning, while Kevin Collyar led the Eagles' explosive offense with two home runs in a 15-7 win over UCO in a nonconference baseball game at Dobson Field.

Collyar and Tanner White, who also homered, each had four RBIs for OC (15-9), which has won seven straight games for the first time since the 2016 season.

"We challenged the boys to just stay on that roll and keep moving forward," OC coach Lonny Cobble said. "You really want to be in the top four in the conference and we're pushing that envelope right now. Every game is important and we've tried to emphasize that to them."

The plan Tuesday was for OC to use one pitcher per inning, so that each hurler could focus only on that inning. It nearly worked to perfection, as only one of them didn't make it through his inning. Seven of the nine – Casey Minchey, Hayden Barber, Brent McDonald, Kaden Kirby, Ryan Hill, Jaden Skupien and Blake Empkey – didn't allow any runs and all but one of them recorded at least one strikeout against UCO (12-10).

UCO "scored in two innings and we put up zeros the rest of the night," Cobble said. "The guys settled down and pitched well. … We just tried to instill in the pitchers this game, 'Go out and you've only got one inning. Try to put up a zero,' and we did that a bunch of times.

"We still have some guys competing for travel spots and back-end-of-bullpen duty. We just challenged them to make it tough on the coaches to make decisions. … We had a lot of guys step up. These are guys that we need. They're starting to figure out some things and perform for us."

Taking advantage of a stiff southerly wind that steadily blew higher than 20 mph, OC jumped to a quick 5-0 lead. White hit a three-run homer over the left-field fence in the first inning and Collyar and Empkey (then playing right field) each had a solo shot – also to left field – in the second inning.

The Bronchos took advantage of an error to extend the third inning long enough to score six runs, with Shane Nixon and Cacy Harper each contributing a three-run homer. That put UCO up 6-5 and the Bronchos added what proved to be their final run in the fifth, making it 7-5.

OC answered in the bottom of the fifth with five runs. Grant Lake hit a bases-loaded triple to right-center field to put the Eagles back ahead and Jordan Kennedy and Jaren Hill followed with run-scoring singles. In the sixth, the Eagles scored twice without a hit, and Collyar slammed a three-run homer in the seventh to make it 15-7.

The Eagles increased their season home run total to 49, tops in the Lone Star Conference and 21 more than the second-place team on that list.

"We've got lots of offense," Cobble said. "If we just won't all have a bad day at the same time, we're going to put up some runs.

Chase Berberich (2-1), who pitched the fifth inning for OC, picked up the win, while UCO reliever Blake Bautz (0-1), who didn't record an out in the fifth while facing three batters, took the loss.

OC will be on the LSC road for a three-game series against Texas-Permian Basin that will start Friday. The series has been moved from UTPB's regular home field in Odessa, Texas, to Momentum Bank Ballpark in Midland, Texas, which is home to the Double-A Midland RockHounds.