TULSA�€"Three pitchers combined on a seven-hitter in
game one, and Rene
Recio (Corpus Christi, Texas) earned his first victory in
nearly two years in game two as No. 21 Oral Roberts swept a
Mid-Continent Conference doubleheader from Western Illinois on
Saturday at J.L. Johnson Stadium.
ORU (31-7, 8-0) won by
scores of 3-2 and 7-4. The Golden Eagles have now won 24
consecutive Mid-Con regular-season games.
Conner Tinkler (
Ada, Okla.), Adam
Lesko (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Justin Ramsey (Elk Grove,
Calif.) limited the Leathernecks (16-27, 3-5) to seven hits in the
opener. Tinkler started and went four shutout innings, allowing two
hits while walking three and striking out two.
Lesko (4-1) replaced
Tinkler to start the fifth and allowed two runs on four hits, but
struck out four batters without a walk to earn the win. Ramsey
pitched a scoreless ninth for his sixth save.
ORU scored early in
game one, getting a single run in the second and two more in the
third. Josh
Lex (Elk Grove, Calif.) drove in runs in both the second
and third with base hits, and Brian Hanson (Kelseyville,
Calif.) capped the scoring with an RB I groundout in the third.
Western scored its runs
in the sixth and seventh innings. Kyle Malan had an RBI groundout
in the sixth, and Jim Sanew singled in a run in the seventh.
Recio (1-1) was solid
in 4.2 innings of work in game two. Entering the game on a 75 pitch
limit, Recio allowed two runs on three hits while striking out six
and walking two. Recio's last win came on May 18, 2002 against
Oakland.
The Golden Eagles
jumped out in early in the second game, taking a 2-0 lead in the
first on Grant
Plumley's (Lake Forest, Calif.) two-run double. Western
tied it in the top of the second when first baseman Nick Simmons
hit a wind-aided home run to left, taking advantage of 25 mph-plus
winds.
ORU broke the tie in
the bottom of the third. Lex doubled in Hanson and Plumley singled
in Lex two batters later as ORU grabbed a 4-2 lead.
Matt VanDerBosch (Hastings,
Minn.) gave ORU a 5-2 lead with an RBI single in the fourth. In the
fifth, Lex doubled leading off and came around to score when third
baseman Ryan Cougill mishandled Dennis Bigley's (Lancaster,
Texas) grounder, and Jon Tackett (Tulsa, Okla.) singled in Bigley
for a 7-2 lead.
Western scored a pair
of runs in the sixth on a triple by Malan and a sacrifice fly by
Simmons, but got no closer.
Hanson finished the day
3-for-7 with an RBI and two runs scored, while Lex was 4-for-7 with
two RBI and three runs.
The Golden Eagles
return to action when they host No. 11 Wichita State, 7 p.m.,
Tuesday at J.L. Johnson Stadium.
--ORU--
