Baseball recovers from weekend losses

The Eagle baseball team started the week with a win at home Monday against Southeastern Oklahoma State University after a three-game skid during last weekend.

Junior Kyle Lacy said the team played like a well-oiled machine and stepped up its effort to take the win.

“Everybody was in the game,” Lacy said. “We had one error as a team but we hit the ball well and threw a lot of strikes and that’s what you need to win games.”

Kolton Brown started off the game with a home run to left field, putting Oklahoma Christian University in the lead at 1-0 in the bottom of the second inning.

Derek Jones connected for a single to center field and prompted Lacy to advance to second base then for third, but he was caught and sent to the dugout. Zac Cobble reached home on Jones’ single to bump the team’s score to 2-0.

The middle of the game, innings four and five, provided no runs for either team but in the bottom of the sixth, Brown hit another homer and sent Ben McKenzie across home plate before him.

In the seventh inning Southeastern’s Collin Sefcik knocked a homer past the left field fence and rounded the bases for his team’s sole run of the game.

The Eagles retaliated with a single from Jones into right field, sending Lacy home for the game’s final run and sealing the 5-1 win.

According to Lacy, a well-executed game requires three elements.

“Throwing strikes, being able to swing the bat well and staying away from errors,” Lacy said.

The Eagles visited Oklahoma City University on Tuesday to attempt to sweep the Stars for the second consecutive season after a 40-year span of losing at least one game to its cross-town rivals.

Brown entered the game with a home run in the second inning and sent Jackson Matthews home while he made his way back around to the plate for two early runs.

A few innings later, McKenzie hit a double to advance Jones and Lacy home, then Matthews singled to let McKenzie score, putting the Eagles in a 5-0 lead.

Oklahoma City made a move in the bottom of the sixth when Adam Clark and J.J. Bissell each hit solo homers to trail Oklahoma Christian 5-2.

Lacy fired back with a home run of his own to bring the Eagles up to six runs and the Stars came back with one more run before the game ended.

McKenzie acknowledged the pitching staff as a top contributor to the team’s 6-3 victory.

“Our pitching was great tonight starting with Jared Price who threw five scoreless innings followed by Luke Sandoval and Kyle Lacy,” McKenzie said. “We also had timely hitting throughout the game, which produced our runs.”

With a three-game series scheduled for the weekend, McKenzie said these two recent games encouraged the Eagles for the future.

“Today really helped our confidence going into this weekend, so hopefully we keep it going and can get three wins,” McKenzie said.

Oklahoma Christina will face Oklahoma Panhandle State University in a doubleheader on Friday at noon and 2:30 p.m. and again on Saturday at noon.