Baseball 2/22/2009 12:00:00 AM

Furmanek's Walk Off Homer Lifts ORU to 5-4 Victory

TULSA – Seth Furmanek belted a two-run walk off homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to lift the Oral Roberts University baseball team to a 5-4 victory and complete the weekend sweep of Western Michigan on Sunday at J.L. Johnson Stadium. The Golden Eagles improved to 3-0 overall, while the Broncos dropped to 0-3 on the season.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, senior Juan Martinez (Bakersfield, Calif.) was able to draw a walk after being down 0-2 in the count. Furmanek, a junior transfer, followed with his first home run as a Golden Eagle to seal the victory.

The Broncos scored runs in the first and third inning, and tacked on two more in the top of the fourth as ORU found itself down 4-0.

The Golden Eagles answered in the bottom of the inning, as Furmanek led off with a triple off of the right field wall. Two batters later, PJ Sequeira (Petaluma, Calif.) singled through the left side to plate Furmanek for ORU's first run of the contest.

Freshman right-hander Drew Bowen (Tulsa, Okla.) came on in relief of junior righty Jeff Burleson (Bakersfield, Calif.) in the fifth inning, and kept the Golden Eagles in the contest, throwing three scoreless frames with only one hit and four strikeouts.

ORU began to rally in the bottom of the seventh, as Johnny Roberts (Pryor, Okla.) singled through the right side and Colby Price (Brenham, Texas) followed with a double down the left field line. Justin Mitchell (Broken Arrow, Okla.) hit an infield single to plate Roberts and close the Bronco lead to 4-2.

Two batters later, a Western Michigan error led to another Golden Eagle run to tighten the contest to 4-3.

After two consecutive walks with two outs in the top of the eighth, senior Mark Serrano (Downey, Calif.) came on and struck out Derek Mosher for the third out. Serrano picked up his second win of the season, allowing no hits and fanning three batters in 1.1 innings pitched.

Furmanek led the Golden Eagles offensively with two hits and two RBI, while Price also went 3-for-4 at the plate.

The Golden Eagles return to the field on Friday against UT-San Antonio at J.L. Johnson Stadium.

- ORU -

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Players Mentioned

#24 Jeff Burleson: RHP/INF; 6' 2"; Junior

#9 Seth Furmanek: C; 6' 2"; Junior

#6 Colby Price: INF; 5' 10"; Junior

#8 Mark Serrano: RHP; 6' 1"; Senior

Players Mentioned

#24 Jeff Burleson
: 6' 2"; Junior
: RHP/INF

#9 Seth Furmanek
: 6' 2"; Junior
: C

#6 Colby Price
: 5' 10"; Junior
: INF

#8 Mark Serrano
: 6' 1"; Senior
: RHP