Eagles falter at Southern Arkansas Invitational

Oklahoma Christian University’s baseball team suffered two losses before grabbing a win at the Southern Arkansas Invitational on Friday and Saturday.

“I thought we hit the ball really hard all weekend,” Baseball Head Coach Lonny Cobble said. “On Friday we just didn’t get the big hit when we needed it. On Saturday, we did get it when needed.”

The Eagles struggled on the Goodheart Field in their games on Friday afternoon against Central Missouri University and Southern Arkansas University within six hours of each other.

Central Missouri defeated Oklahoma Christian 7-4 with multiple runs scored early in the game. The Eagles rounded the bases with three runs in the first two innings and then failed to score until the eighth with Kyle Lacy’s homerun.

The team experienced a similar fate shortly after to Southern Arkansas.

Jake Baxter homered to center field to send himself and Zac Cobble home in the first inning, but the team failed to record any other runs until the eighth when Baxter hit a double, allowing Derek Jones to score.

Southern Arkansas used the middle innings to stack up six runs against the Eagles and took the game with a 6-3 win.

On Saturday, Oklahoma Christian rallied together with bookend scoring to take down Washburn University.

Austin Orth started the run-streak in the fourth inning with a single up the middle, sending Baxter from third to home. Jones, Orth and Ben McKenzie followed suit and placed the Eagles in the lead 4-0.

Washburn retaliated with three runs in the bottom of the fourth but ended its streak there. The Eagles scored twice more in the fifth and finalized the game with Lacy’s home run in the eighth, taking the 7-3 victory.

“We didn’t pitch well Friday – walked too many people,” Cobble said. “But on Saturday (Bradley) Horn pitched great – 13 strikeouts. We hope to build on this weekend and keep moving forward and getting better.”

Oklahoma Christian will face Oklahoma Baptist University on Tuesday at 2 p.m.

Statistics provided by the Oklahoma Christian University Sports Information office.