Sports Brief: March 24

Eagle Update

Halfway through Oklahoma Christian University’s baseball and softball seasons, the team’s have run into a tough conference schedule.

Softball sits at 22-8, tying for third in the Lone Star Conference. This placing emerges from the Lady Eagles’ record-breaking series against the University of Texas-Permian Basin, where they scored a total of 40 runs in three games to sweep the Falcons.

Baseball, on the other hand, is battling with a 10-15 record going into a home series against Texas A&M-Kingsville. 

25 games into the 50-game season, the Eagles find themselves at No. 10 in the Lone Star, just two wins behind seventh place Texas A&M International. 

Runner Dylan Burrows earned national all-American honors after finishing fifth in the 800 meters at the National NCAA Division II Indoor Championship meet.

Men’s golf took second at the Oak Tree Invitational in Edmond, OK, while the women finished fifth during the same weekend at the Midwestern State Invitational in Wichita Falls, TX.

Ja Morant

The NBA handed Ja Morant an eight-game suspension for flashing a gun in a nightclub in Colorado.

Morant returned to the Memphis Grizzlies on March 22, scoring 17 points in 24 minutes. 

“I got a second chance,” Morant said. “I felt like it was on me to show who Ja is as a person.” 

World Baseball Classic 

Japan won the 2023 World Baseball Classic, beating the United States 3-2 in the championship game.

This game was the highest-rated World Baseball Classic game ever, showing a 69% increase from any other WBC game here in the United States.

In Japan, an estimated 60 million people watched their country edge out the Americans, winning their second WBC title. 

 March Madness

March Madness’ third and fourth-round games occur from March 23-26.

The first round saw the second-ever 16 seed beat a 1 seed, as Fairleigh Dickinson University triumphed over Purdue in their game.

The defending champions, the Kansas Jayhawks, lost to Arkansas in the second round, leaving Alabama and Houston the lone two one-seeds to survive the first weekend. 

Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds will conclude by March 26, leading up to the Final Four on April 1.