The Oklahoma Baptist Bison rallied for five runs in the top of the ninth inning on Saturday afternoon to win the game, 12-10, and the series against Wayland. The Pioneers fall to 19-13 overall and 9-6 in Sooner Athletic Conference play.
WBU jumped out early with six runs in the bottom of the first. Eddie Allen led off with a single, the first of four hits in the game for the junior shortstop. One batter later, Pedro Gomez smacked a two-run homer to center field. The Pioneers got five more singles, a walk and a run-scoring double by Allen off OBU starter Brent Robison. Jose Santiago, Oscar Rivera and Scott Keane also recorded RBI in the inning.
Allen got another double in the fourth and scored on a sacrfice fly off the bat of Gomez. All the other Pioneer scoring in the contest came off the bat of junior Kevin Hennessey, who hit three solo home runs to go with a single.
Junior pitcher Trevor Stringer, the scheduled starter for game three of the series, came down with a bout of the stomach flu overnight and had to be scratched. He was replaced by senior Justin Eatherly who made his first start of the season. The transfer from Southeastern Oklahoma State, who was pitching on three days rest, went 3-2/3 innings, allowing four earned runs and striking out three.
Former Plainview Bulldog Jobi Sanchez relieved Eatherly and did a good job on two days rest, surrendering just one run on eight hits in 3-1/3 innings. The sophomore struck out two.
Sanchez was came out after giving up back-to-back hits in the eighth. Senior Brett Swett came in to get a fly out and two strikeouts to end the inning.
The Pioneers had a 9-7 lead going into the top of the ninth, but OBU got a two-run homer with one out to tie up the score and then went ahead on four consecutive hits. Swett got the loss for WBU, his first of the season.
Hennessey led off the bottom of the ninth with his 13th homer of the season to make it 12-10, but the next three Pioneer batters failed to get on base.
WBU will next play on the road at St. Gregory's University on March 31 and April 1. The three-game series will begin at 1 p.m. on Wednesday with a doubleheader, and will conclude with at 1 p.m. on Thursday. Live Stats for all three games are tentatively scheduled to be seen on www.wbuathletics.com.
