Box Score
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas. - Alex
Gonzalez earned his third win of the season in complete style
as the Oral Roberts baseball team rolled to its fourth conference
victory of the season, topping Texas A&M-Corpus Christi,
8-2.
Gonzalez struck out eight batters in the nine full innings,
allowing two runs, one of which were earned. He improved his record
to 3-4 on the season, as the Golden Eagles move to 9-16 (4-0
Southland).
Game two of the series will begin at 6 p.m. on Friday.
The Golden Eagles led off their scoring in the top of the
fourth, pushing across four runs on four hits. Graham
McIntyre singled back up the middle to start the inning,
advancing to second as Logan
Domenico took four straight pitches to take first.
Jose
Trevino followed with what looked to be a bloop single in the
left, but was robbed by a great diving catch.
With one out, Tyler
Boss ripped a single back up the middle to score McIntyre, and
Domenico scored as Matt
Brandy had almost the exact same hit up the middle.
The third run of the inning came when Chris
Williams hit a hot shot down the left field line for a double,
plating Boss, and Kevin
Cho laid down a bunt to score Brandy, giving the Golden Eagles
a 4-0 lead.
In the fifth inning, McIntyre added his second hit of the ball
game with a double down the line on the left side, moving to third
on a Domenico single and eventually scoring on a wild pitch for the
fifth run of the evening.
After a quick bottom of the fifth, the Golden Eagles continued
to add to the run total in the top of the sixth. Brandy and
Williams kick started the inning with a pair of back-to-back
singles and Cho drew a walk to load the bases with no outs.
What was nearly a big inning, Austen
Colt just barely missed an extra base hit, flying out to the
deepest part of the ball park, allowing Brandy to cross the
plate.
Gonzalez was rolling through the first two-thirds of the contest
before the Islander offense really got going. With one-out in top
bottom of the sixth, the junior hurler made Zach Taylor chase a
pitch away. However, the pitch got away from the other half of the
ORU battery, allowing Taylor to reach.
Taylor was sent back to the bench as the next batter, Eric
Weiss, beat out a double play for a fielder's choice. Weiss
wouldn't stand on first long through, scoring from the base as
Jonathan Gonzales doubled to right-center.
In the top of the ninth, the Golden Eagles tacked on another
run. Nate
Goro was plunked by a pitch get the inning going, swiping
second, and advancing to third on an infield single off the bat of
McIntyre.
Domenico then plated Goro with a single to right to expand the
lead to 7-1. Brandy added his second RBI of the evening as he flew
out to left, deep enough to score Domenico with the bases
loaded.
The Islanders did a final run in the bottom of the ninth with a
leadoff solo homerun from Weiss, his third of the season.
Earning his first loss of the season for A&M-CC was Matt
Danton. The Islanders fall to 14-12 on the season and 1-3 in
conference play.