Oklahoma City, Okla. - Oklahoma Christian, led by strong pitching performances and clutch hitting, took down the Buffs of West Texas A&M at Dobson Field on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon.
 
Kyle Higgins got his third start of the season and worked around a leadoff walk to retire the Buffs in the top of the first.
 
In the bottom of the first, the Eagles jumped on the Buffs' starting pitcher early, with Jayvien Joseph collecting his second double of the season to get things started. Marcus Johnson reached base and advanced Joseph to third on a fielding error, and Chance Westervelt gave the Eagles the lead with an RBI single.
 
Higgins sat the side down in order in the top of the second, and the Eagles looked to have something going after a Grant Lake single and what looked like a Jaren Hill RBI double before it was called foul. After the foul ball, Hill drove a ball back down the line, but the third baseman snagged it and turned two to end the inning.
 
WT tied the game in the third after a leadoff walk led to a sacrifice bunt and an RBI single.
 
Both pitchers settled in from the bottom of the third to the fifth when Oklahoma Christian regained the lead with three runs on three hits.
 
Ethan Box doubled and advanced to third on an error, and Hank Heieselbetz followed that with a two-out walk, and the two-out rally was on. Blake Empkey stepped up with two runners in scoring position and brought them both home with a two-RBI single. Marcus Johnson kept the rally going with an RBI single, giving OC a 4-1 lead.
 
An error, a single, and a hit by pitch resulted in an RBI sacrifice fly, but Andrew Alonzo, who came in in relief, stopped the comeback attempt by getting the sacrifice fly, a ground out, and a strikeout.
 
Things rolled into the eighth inning when the Buffs rallied and took the lead on a wild pitch that led to another error, allowing WT to score two runs on the play and take a 5-4 lead.
 
Blake Empkey leadoff the bottom of the 8th with a double, and the Eagles were in business. Johnson moved Empkey to third with a sacrifice bunt, and an Aaron Hunter sacrifice fly scored Empkey to tie the game at 5.
 
But the Eagles weren't satisfied tying the game, and Hunter Jones walked and came home to score on a Grant Lake RBI double, giving OC their go-ahead run. Ethan Box gave Oklahoma Christian an insurance run with an RBI single, bringing OC's lead to 7-5, as the game headed to the 9th inning.
 
A single and a wild pitch brought one of the Lone Star Conference's best hitters, Adam Becker, to the plate, and Chris Huerta came up with a huge strikeout. The strikeout was on a dropped third strike, and it appeared that Becker beat out the throw, but head coach Lonny Cobble lobbied that he was out of the baseline, and the umps gathered and made the call that Becker was out of the baseline.
 
The dropped third strike moved the base runner to third and gave the Buffs runners on 1st and 3rd with two outs, and Cobble went to the pen to bring in Matthew Shira. Shira came in and picked up the game-winning strikeout to give the Eagles the win in the final game of the series.
 
Oklahoma Christian sits in 11th place in the LSC with three series remaining, five games behind the eighth place Conference tournament cutoff. The Eagles have a chance to knock teams off right in front of them in the next three series, and they play a team behind them.
 
 
UP NEXT
 
Oklahoma Christian will head to Eastern New Mexico next weekend, with the series opener beginning on Friday at 4 p.m.