OKLAHOMA CITY (Feb. 20, 2022) – After a tough loss to one Great American Conference softball team, No. 15-ranked Oklahoma Christian bounced back with a narrow win over another GAC squad on Sunday in the Edmond Regional Festival at Tom Heath Field.
Harding (Ark.) prevailed 10-9 in a wild back-and-forth game, giving the Bisons a sweep of their two games this season with OC, before the Eagles held off a late rally by East Central to win 5-4.
OC (10-4) will close out the festival on Monday, facing another GAC squad, Oklahoma Baptist, at 4:45 p.m.
The softball team from Harding (11-4) – OC's sister institution – never had played the Eagles until two weeks ago, when the programs met at a neutral-site event in Conroe, Texas. Harding, which won that game 3-0, then made what is a rare visit by any of that university's teams to the OC campus for Sunday's game.
On a day when the wind was gusting toward left and center fields, Harding took full advantage, smacking three home runs. Two of them came in the first two innings, putting the Bisons ahead 4-0. OC answered with its biggest inning of the season, a six-run outburst in the bottom of the second.
Tristyn Hamilton started it with a triple down the right-field line.
Brooklin Bain, making her season debut after starring since November for OC's women's basketball team, hit a ground-rule double to score a run. Freshman
Grace Anderson greeted Harding reliever Lily Tanski with a bases-loaded double that landed on the left-field line and scored three runs.
A two-run homer by Leigha Harris keyed a three-run fifth inning for Harding, and the Bisons regained the lead at 8-6.
Kylie Janzen hit a solo homer for the Eagles in the bottom of the fifth and Bain's leadoff triple started a two-run sixth, which ended with OC ahead 9-8.
Harding had one more rally left. Singles by Nicole Shano and Chelsea Blankenship gave the Bisons runners on first and third base with one out in the top of the seventh. Shano scored on a sacrifice fly by Emma Curry and Jordan Cabana's single to right field off reliever
Kali Crandall put the Bisons ahead 10-9.
Harding reliever Maegan Pistokache (2-2) retired the Eagles in order in the bottom of the inning.
Against East Central (2-7), OC picked up consecutive two-out, run-scoring hits from Anderson, Janzen,
Abi LaValley and
Chloe Woodward, with the last three being doubles, to take what appeared to be a comfortable 4-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning.
Crandall (6-3) went the distance in the circle for OC, but ran into trouble in the fourth, giving up three runs, two scoring on a single by Megan Lesko. The Tigers tied the game in the fifth when Tatiana Bryant led off with a single and pinch-runner Whitney Kimberlin scored on a groundout by Cheyenne Adair.
OC regained the lead in the bottom of the fifth.
Whitney Walde delivered a sharp single to right field off East Central starter Taia Harris (1-4), moved to second base when Anderson beat out an infield single and took third on a throwing error by Bryant, ECU's first baseman, as she tried to throw out Anderson. Walde scored on a sacrifice fly by LaValley.
East Central managed only one other hit off Crandall during the final two innings.
OC now leads its all-time series against East Central by a 9-5-1 margin.
