OKLAHOMA CITY (April 8, 2022) – One of the strangest opening innings you'll ever see in a baseball game, and some continual clutch hitting by Grant Lake, proved more than enough for Oklahoma Christian on Friday against Texas-Permian Basin.

OC scored seven runs in the first inning without the aid of a hit, and Lake went 4 for 5 with six RBIs as the Eagles rolled to a 15-6 win in the opening game of a four-game series at Dobson Field. Before the game, members of the Dobson family gathered on the field for a short ceremony recognizing donors who contributed toward the installation of a new artificial-turf infield playing surface earlier this year.

With the win, OC (15-23, 15-22 Lone Star Conference) stayed percentage points ahead of Arkansas-Fort Smith for eighth place in the LSC. The top eight teams at the end of the regular season will qualify for the LSC postseason tournament. UTPB (10-24, 9-24) is in last place in the 13-team league.

Much of OC's offensive production on Friday came from simply taking what the Falcons gave them. UTPB's four pitchers combined for 13 walks, hit six batters and threw five wild pitches. All of the latter came from starter Ed O'Bannon III (1-2), who didn't throw a strike during his 13-pitch stint – he hit the leadoff batter and then walked the next three OC hitters on four pitches each before being removed.

The Eagles sent 12 batters to the plate in the first inning and the first eight reached base – two after being hit by a pitch, five others via a walk and another on a fielding error. Combined with all the wild pitches and a couple of sacrifice flies by Kevin Collyar and Blake Empkey, the Eagles built a 7-2 lead.

Lake hit a three-run home run to right-center field in the second inning to extend the Eagles' lead to 10-2. UTPB closed the gap to 10-6 by the sixth inning, when Pedro Astacio tripled and scored, but OC reliever Jayce Meyer (1-0) settled down and pitched three mostly effective innings to earn the win.

Lake's RBI single to left field keyed a three-run sixth inning for OC and the Eagles tacked on two more runs in the eighth, on a towering solo home run to right field by Matthew Conerly and a run-scoring double to right field by Lake, which plated Tanner White, who earlier had doubled down the left-field line.

OC and the Falcons will play a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. Saturday, then will finish the series with a single nine-inning game on Sunday at 1 p.m.

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