Their bats came alive and their defense played flawlessly as the Wayland Baptist Pioneers defeated ninth-ranked Oklahoma City University in the second game of their Sooner Athletic Conference series Friday night at Wilder Field, 11-6. The Stars prevailed in the opener, 15-4.
Wayland (24-18, 13-10 SAC) and OCU (42-11, 21-5) meet for game 3 at 1 p.m. Saturday in what will be the regular-season finale for both squads. Nine WBU seniors will be recognized before the game.
After a forgettable game 1 saw Wayland commit four errors and surrender eight runs in the seventh inning, the Pioneers turned it around in game 2, scoring in all but one of their at-bats, pounding 15 hits and committing no errors.
Gregory Ozuna hit his team-leading eighth home run, a two-run blast, in the first inning to get things started.
In the second, Nick Rucker, Jake Green and Andy McEachern all singled to load the bases. Yaniel Vargasd drove in a run with a groundout before Daniel Goncalves plated two with a double to left-center. Ozuna followed that with a double of his own to make it 6-0.
OCU got on the board in the third with a pair of runs, but the Pioneers got both back in the bottom on Green's second homer of the season.
Pioneer starter Andrew Manier got into some trouble in the fourth, surrendering four runs on three hits, a walk and a hit-batsman. But freshman Irving Munoz came in and got the last two outs to get Wayland out of the inning clinging to an 8-6 lead.
The Pioneers got a run back in the bottom of the fourth via an OCU error then, after a three-up, three-down top of the fifth, plated a pair after a single by Vargas, a walk by Goncalves, an RBI-single by Brendon Foust and an RBI-double by Devlin Smith.
The top of the sixth proved huge for the Pioneers. OCU got its first two batters aboard on a double and single, but Munoz struck out the Stars' No. 4 and 5 hitters before catcher Green threw out the next Star to end the threat.
Wayland had a similar scenario in the bottom of the frame when they couldn't push across a run despite lead-off hits by Green and Nick Valenzuela. It didn't matter, though, as the Pioneer defense came through in the seventh. After a one-out walk and single put two runners on, Wayland ended it on a clutch double-play that saw shortstop Ozuna bobble the ball at second before rifling to first baseman Foust who dug out the final out.
The win snapped OCU's eight-game winning streak.
Munoz (2-0) went 3 2/3 innings, allowing no runs on three hits with four strikeouts and a walk.
At the plate, Ozuna and Green both went 3-for-4, with Ozuna recording three RBIs and Green two. Foust and Valenzuela ended with a pair of hits each, and Goncalves had two RBIs. Vargas, Goncalves, Ozuna and Rucker scored twice each.
In the opener, the series couldn't have gotten started any worse for Wayland as the Stars got two runners on by way of an error and hit-batsman after just two pitches. The Stars got four runs out of it then took a 6-0 lead in the third when they managed three hits and Wayland committed another error.
But the Pioneers kept clawing and cut the deficit to 6-4 in the fourth when they finally reached OCU starter Bryce Milligan. After Ozuna doubled and Foust walked, Smith's single scored WBU's first run of the day. A single by Dawin Santos loaded the bases before Foust scored on a wild pitch. A walk by Nunez reloaded them for Austin Moya, who managed a sacrifice fly before Jonathan Ottenwalder's two-out single made it 6-4.
But Milligan (11-1), who entered the game with 91 strikeouts, re-established himself and the Stars retired the Pioneers in order in the fifth and sixth innings. That led to a disastrous seventh for Wayland, which gave up eight runs on six hits, an error and a hit-batsman as the Stars put the game out of reach.
Wayland starter Tanner Solomon (6-3) went 6 1/3 innings, striking out four and allowing seven earned runs on seven hits with three walks. Cesar Paz and Chase Jones closed it out, allowing three runs and three hits each. Milligan walked away with six more Ks in six innings of work.
Ottenwalder and Smith combined for four of the Pioneers' seven hits.
