CEDAR CITY,
Utah-Brett
Sowers went 4-for-5 with three runs scored and Bryce
Smolen tossed his second straight complete game as Oral Roberts
earned a 14-4 run-rule victory in its Summit League series opener
with Southern Utah, Thursday at Thunderbird Park.
The Golden
Eagles (17-14 overall, 5-0 Summit) remained perfect in league play
behind a 14-hit offensive effort which featured five players with
two or more hits apiece, led by Sowers who also added a double and
an RBI to round out his day at the plate.
ORU wasted
little time in getting on the board, scoring a pair of runs in the
top of the first inning. With two outs and nobody on, Nick
Baligod ripped a double, moved to third on a wild pitch and
later scored on another wild pitch for a 1-0 lead. With Baligod on
third, Jared
Schlehuber walked and came around to score on a single by Seth
Furmanek for a 2-0 lead.
Southern
Utah (7-24, 1-4) tied the game in the third, using a sacrifice fly
and a wild pitch to plate a pair of runs.
The Golden
Eagles broke it open in the middle innings, scoring seven total
runs between the fourth and fifth. Three straight batters reached
to load the bases with one out in the fourth. Joey Winiecki
followed with a 2-run single for a 4-2 lead, and Tyler Saladino
followed Winiecki with a run-scoring single of his own for a 5-2
ORU advantage. Baligod finished the scoring spree with a sacrifice
fly for a 6-2 lead.
In the
fifth, Tyler Garewal singled and
later scored on a throwing error by the left fielder to make it
7-2. Bennett
Pickar and Winiecki also rapped run-scoring single as ORU
surged out to a 9-2 lead.
Joe
Goldenberg hit a solo home run for Southern Utah in the sixth
inning to pull the Thunderbirds to within 9-3, but ORU put the game
out of reach with five runs in the top of the eighth. Furmanek
knocked in two runs with a double and Pickar belted a three-run
homer for a 14-3 lead.
Goldenberg
connected for another solo homer in the bottom of the eighth to
make it 14-4, but it wasn't enough to keep the T-Birds - or the
game - alive.
Smolen (4-2)
scattered eight hits and one walk, striking out three to earn the
victory. All four runs were earned. Steve Johnson (1-3) suffered
the loss after allowing nine runs (seven earned) on nine hits in
4.2 innings.
Pickar
finished the game 2-for-4, scoring three runs and collecting three
RBI. Baligod, Furmanek and Winiecki each had two hits for ORU.
The teams
resume their four-game series with a 1 p.m., doubleheader on
Friday.
--ORU--
