TULSA-Oral
Roberts pounded out 15 hits, including a pair of home runs by Robert
Barbosa, as the Golden Eagles completed a series sweep of
Western Michigan with a 15-5 victory on Sunday at J.L. Johnson
Stadium.
Starting
pitcher Seth Furmanek (1-0), also in
the lineup at designated hitter, opened the scoring for ORU (5-6)
when he smashed a three-run home run in the bottom of the first to
give the Golden Eagles a 3-0 lead.
Furmanek
gave back two of those runs in the top of the second when he
surrendered a two-run homer to Brad Wehrmeyer as the Broncos (2-10)
cut the lead to 3-2.
Barbosa,
getting a start at third base in place of Brett
Sowers, belted the first of his two home runs in the bottom of
the second. The blast was a two-run shot and gave ORU a 5-2
advantage.
Western
Michigan cut ORU's lead to 5-4 when Jimmy Martinez connected for a
two-run homer off Furmanek in the top of the fifth, but ORU got the
runs back in the bottom half of the inning when a two-run single by
Chris Elder gave ORU a 7-4
lead.
Barbosa
smashed his second homer of the day in the sixth, a three-run shot,
as ORU surged to a 10-4 lead, and Bennett
Pickar's sacrifice fly in the seventh gave the Golden Eagles an
11-4 advantage.
WMU's Ryan
McMillin homered off reliever R.J.
Davis in the top of the eighth to make it 11-5, but the Golden
Eagles erupted in the bottom of the inning to put the game out of
reach. Furmanek laced an RBI double for a 12-4 lead and P.J.
Sequeira followed with a towering three-run homer for the final
15-5 margin.
Furmanek
tossed 5.0 solid innings for ORU, allowing four runs (three earned)
on six hits, walking one and striking out three to earn his first
collegiate victory. He also went 2-for-5 at the plate and knocked
in four runs while scoring three times.
Colby Price continued
his recent torrid hitting, collecting three hits including a
double. Barbosa finished 2-for-3 with five RBI, and Elder and Joey
Winiecki each had two hits.
Eric
Heckaman (0-2) took the loss for the Broncos, allowing nine runs on
10 hits in five innings.
The Golden
Eagles look to extend their winning streak to four games when they
host No. 7 TCU, 7 p.m., Tuesday at J.L. Johnson Stadium.
--ORU--
