Baseball loses weekend battle to conference rival

Photo by: Henoc Kivuye

 

The Eagles baseball squad split a doubleheader against St. Edward’s University last weekend, dropping the first game 5-2 but surging back after for a dominant 13-8 victory.

“I felt like we played well last weekend,” senior Kacy Cook said. “We let one game get away from us and it was a little disappointing. St. Edward’s is a very good team though, that was ranked top 10 in the nation during the preseason, and we showed we are just as good as them.”

The Eagles lost the first game Friday 5-2, but the second game saw a complete turnaround. The Eagles were down 7-1 until the fourth inning when the team brought in four runs. Oklahoma Christian University closed the gap to 7-5 with a two-run double from senior Cameron Keener and a triple from senior Cory Eastwood. The Eagles and St. Edward’s both put up runs in the seventh inning. The eighth was a game changer however, when the Eagles sent 12 players to the plate. Oklahoma Christian pulled out the second-day victory 13-8.

“We did expect to come back,” Cook said, “We had been swinging the bats really well and knew our offense was going to show up and put up a big number sooner or later.”

While Cook believed that Oklahoma Christian was going to start making big plays to narrow the margin, other players did not see the team overcoming a six-point deficit.

“I don’t think we were expecting that big of a comeback, but we definitely knew it was coming,” sophomore Luke Sandoval said.

According to freshman Kolton Brown, Head Baseball Coach Lonny Cobble encouraged the players in the team huddle before the start of the eighth inning, filling them with positive spirits and creating a new energy for the team.

“We had a great meeting with Coach Cobble right before our great inning,” Brown said. “The energy in the dugout was buzzing and everyone was into the game, which was very fun and exciting.”

Friday’s victory proved to the Eagles that no squad and no score could stop the team from sealing a win, according to sophomore Jesse Stephens.

“I think as a team we all have the confidence to know we can come back from a deficit at any point in the game against any team, no matter how far down we are,” Stephens said. “I like that we can show resiliency, because that is what separates good teams from great teams.”

The Eagles started off strong Saturday, taking an early 3-0 lead with the help of senior pitcher Tyler Sturges. Sturges struck out six of St. Edward’s’ batters, walked four and only gave up three hits. In the seventh inning the Hilltoppers’ bats came roaring back, carving out a 5-3 lead to defeat Oklahoma Christian.

“We started out with the momentum we had Friday and got up three runs early,” Brown said. “Tyler Sturges threw six scoreless innings, which was awesome. Our bats got quiet though, and we just couldn’t seem to get them going again. Then with a few key St. Edward’s hits and an error, they came back to go ahead. We couldn’t regroup after that and never got our bats going again, so we lost.”

Brown is not the only Oklahoma Christian player who said the team lost steam after the first few innings.

“Well I thought we got off to a great start, jumping all over their starter, scoring three runs in the first two innings,” Stephens said. “But then we kind of went on cruise control. Our offense became stagnant instead of putting them away when we had the chance. It would have been nice to have a little extra breathing room for when Sturges came out of the game to make it a little easier on our bullpen.”

Cook is hoping to use these early games in the season as lessons and apply them to the rest of their season.

“Saturday’s game was disappointing,” Cook said. “We proved we are as good as St. Edward’s and probably more talented. We let that one get away from us, but we have a long way to go in the season and we will get better at closing out games.”

With the season being so young, Stephens is looking forward to see this team grow and focus on deepening the bullpen, along with stabilizing other areas of the game.

“The team is going to work on getting better at making pitches,” Stephens said. “We are also going to work on getting hits in clutch situations and keeping the energy intense in the dugout.”

Sandoval agreed that the team still has work to do.

“We’re going to work on being better mentally prepared and focused throughout an entire nine-inning game,” Sandoval said.

St. Edward’s walked away last weekend with a 2-1 series win over the Eagles. According to the players, the next time the Eagles face off against St. Edward’s it will be a different story.

“We always have a chance to beat anyone we play, no matter how good people say they are, we compete with everyone,” Sandoval said. “We knew we could compete and we could beat those guys, but it did feel good to show everyone that we are capable of beating nationally-ranked teams.”