TULSA,
Okla. �€" The Oral Roberts
University�€™s baseball team defeated
Bethune-Cookman, 7-1, in the first game then dropped the second
game to the Wildcats, 3-2, on Saturday at J.L. Johnson Stadium. ORU
is now 13-12 while B-CC is 13-19 on the season.
ORU
capitalized on another solid pitching performance from starter
Jeremy Hefner (Perkins, Okla.) in the first game
to win, 7-1. Hefner recorded his first complete game in a Golden
Eagle uniform, recording a career-high 11 strikeouts and scattered
four hits while just allowing one run. It was the third straight
game where ORU had a starter strike out at least eight batters.
Things
started out right for the Golden Eagles in the first game, putting
a run on the board in each of the first two innings. Brian
Van Kirk (Southwest Ranches, Fla.) had a run-scoring
single in the first inning and Kelly Minissale
(Murphy, Texas) singled in Pat Warfle (Melbourne,
Fla.) in the second for an early 2-0 lead.
The
Golden Eagles tallied three more runs in the bottom of the fourth
inning to increase their lead to 5-0. Marcus
Tackett (Tulsa, Okla.) started the inning with a single to
left field. Brendan Duffy (Glendale, Ariz.)
knocked in Tackett and then Minissale had a two-RBI double later in
the inning.
Bethune-Cookman ended Hefner�€™s attempt at a
shutout when Chris Henault started off the seventh inning with a
solo home run over the left field fence.
The
Golden Eagles added two more insurance runs in the eighth from a
two-run home run by Adam Younger (Cape Coral,
Fla.).
Minissale went 3-for-4 with three RBI and Warfle went 2-for-3 to
lead the Golden Eagles in the first game.
In the
second game, ORU fell behind 3-0 after the first two innings and
could not recover as Bethune-Cookman won 3-2.
The
Wildcats�€™ Angel Mercado hit a two-run home run
off Michael Jarman (Stigler, Okla.) in the first
inning. B-CC tallied another run in second inning when Jose Almonte
singled to score Luis Gonzalez.
Van
Kirk produced the first run of the Golden Eagles with a solo home
run to left field. The Golden Eagles got closer when
Stephen Pearson (Petaluma, Calif.) hit his second
home run of the season to the bullpen in the right field.
B-CC�€™s starter Dustin Blackwell was relieved by
Francisco Gomez with two outs in the ninth and forced Duffy to
ground out to end the game.
Eric Crichton (Seal Beach, Calif.) had a solid
performance from the bullpen for the Golden Eagles scattering four
hits and striking out five in 3.2 innings of work.
Younger
led ORU with a perfect 3-for-3 effort and Jake
Kahaulelio (Windsor, Calif.) went 2-for-4.
ORU and
B-CC play the rubber match of the three-game set tomorrow at 1 p.m.
at J.L. Johnson Stadium.
-ORU-
