TULSA-Oral
Roberts scored five runs in the bottom of the eighth to rally for
an 11-8 win over Western Illinois in the opening game of a Summit
league series, Friday at J.L. Johnson Stadium.
After
holding a 5-1 lead, the Golden Eagles (19-17 overall, 7-2 Summit)
found themselves trailing 7-6 with two outs and none on in the
eighth. Colby
Price and Joey
Winiecki started the rally with back-to-back singles. Tyler Saladino then
launched a 2-1 pitch over the leftfield wall for his eighth home
run of the season and a 9-7 ORU lead.
But ORU
didn't stop there. Nick Baligod reached after
being hit by a pitch and Seth Furmanek walked. Tyler
Garewal and Jared
Schlehuber followed with run-scoring singles and ORU had an
11-7 advantage.
Reliever Dallas
Beeler - the fourth Golden Eagle pitcher of the night - retired
the Leathernecks in the ninth to preserve the win and snap ORU's
three-game losing streak.
Down 1-0
after Western Illinois (9-25, 2-7) plated a run in the top of the
first, ORU scored three in the bottom of the inning. Baligod
doubled home Winiecki with one out, tying the game at 1-1. Furmanek
followed Baligod with a two-run homer for a 3-1 Golden Eagles
lead.
Baligod
helped ORU add to its lead in the bottom of the third. The
right-fielder's second double of the game scored Saladino with one
out and made it 4-1. Chris Elder knocked in
Baligod two batters later when his soft grounder got past the mound
and into the outfield as the Golden Eagles went up 5-1.
But the lead
wouldn't last. The Leathernecks trimmed ORU's lead to 5-2 on Cole
Waddell's RBI single in the top of the fifth. In the sixth, the
Leathernecks scored four times to take a 6-5 lead. Chris Giglio
blasted a two-run homer to pull Western within 5-4, and Dan
Dispensa gave the Leathernecks a 6-5 ead a two-run triple.
Western
tacked on another run in the top of the seventh when Giglio knocked
in his third run of the game for a 7-5 lead.
ORU made it
a one-run game in the bottom of the seventh, but also wasted an
opportunity to have a bigger inning. The Golden Eagles loaded the
bases with nobody out but managed only a Furmanek sacrifice fly,
which trimmed the deficit to 7-6.
Sean Johnson (2-1)
picked up the win for ORU, allowing one run in two innings. Chris
Macek (2-4) took the loss for Western, allowing four runs in 1.2
innings of work.
The Golden
Eagles collected 14 hits. Saladino was 3-for-3 with three RBI and a
pair of runs. Winiecki, Baligod and Price each had two hits.
ORU and
Western Illinois resume their series on Saturday with a 2 p.m.
doubleheader.
--ORU--
