FAYETEVILLE,
Ark. �€" A two-out ninth inning rally came up short
for the Oral Roberts University baseball team Tuesday night, as
they couldn't overcome an early deficit before falling 5-2 to the
University of Arkansas in front of 1,249 at Baum Stadium.
The Golden
Eagles (22-16), playing their first game in nine days, trailed the
Razorbacks (32-11) 5-0 after seven innings before seeing their late
inning rally fall short.
ORU starter
Dennis Bigley
(Lancaster, Texas) hadn't allowed a run in 22 innings when Arkansas
pushed across its first run in the home half of the second. There were two outs in the
inning when a Michael
Hollimon (Dallas, Texas) throwing error allowed Ben
Tschepikow to score from second for a 1-0 Razorback lead.
Bigley pitched
just two innings while taking the loss, giving up the lone unearned
run on two hits. He also
struck out two and walked one.
Arkansas later
added single runs in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings
to increase their advantage to 5-0.
The Golden
Eagles tried to make a game of it late, scoring a pair of runs with
two outs in the ninth. An
error, walk, and single loaded the bases for Travis DeBondt
(Bakersfield, Calif.) who doubled to right field, scoring Bigley
and Kelly
Minissale (Murphy, Texas) to close to the gap to 5-2. Razorback reliever Charley Boyce
ended the threat one batter later when Hollimon flied out right to
end the game.
Shaun Seibert
earned the win for Arkansas as he pitched two scoreless innings,
giving up a pair of hits while walking one and striking out
four.
DeBondt paced
the ORU offense, going 1-for-3 with a double and two RBIs.
The Golden
Eagles will return to action this weekend when they host Mid-Con
foe Valparaiso in a four game set. The first pitch for Saturday's
doubleheader is set for 2:00 p.m.
--ORU--
