OKLAHOMA CITY – Sooner Athletic Conference play got off to a rocky start for the Wayland Baptist baseball team here Friday as the Pioneers dropped a doubleheader to 20
th-ranked Oklahoma City University, 8-2 and 17-3.
Wayland (13-5, 0-2 SAC) had lost only three games coming into the day, but the power-hitting Stars (16-1, 2-0) proved worthy of their ranking and impressive record.
The Pioneers will try to scrape up a win in the series finale at 1 p.m. Saturday back at Jim Wade Stadium.
In Friday's opener, conference play got off to an encouraging start for Wayland as the Pioneers' scored twice in the top of the first inning after a lead-off walk by
Tyler Latham, a fielder's choice that allowed
Jack Kolich on board, back-to-back singles by
Arturo Disla and
Jake Green, and an RBI-groundout by
Cesar Lopez.
The Stars homered to get one run back in the bottom of the first then took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the second on a two-run blast.
After that, the Pioneers saw only one more lead the rest of the day.
OCU locked up game one with a five-run fourth. The Stars handed WBU's
Tanner Solomon (2-1) his first loss, reaching him for eight runs on nine hits – including three home runs – in 3 2/3 innings. He struck out four and walked none.
Gloymer Cuevas finished strong for WBU, throwing 2 1/3 hitless innings and fanning four.
The Pioneers got six hits off senor Tanner Schoeninger, who struck out six and walked two. Green went 2-for-3, and
Dawin Santos' double was Wayland's only extra-base hit.
Game 2 also started off on the right foot with WBU taking a 1-0 lead thanks to a lead-off double by Latham, a sacrifice bunt by Kolich and a balk. But the lead didn't last long as the Stars struck for three runs in the first, five in the second and seven in the third.
In the first, the Pioneers retired the first two Stars' batters before a two-out rally featured a homer, single, double, walk and back-to-back hit-batsmen. In OCU's five-run second, the Stars got back-to-back home runs, then in their seven-run third, two WBU errors, four walks and two more hit-batsmen proved costly.
Starter Tye Jackson (2-1 suffered his first loss of the season, allowing eight runs on seven hits in 1 1/3. Five WBU pitchers followed him to the hill as OCU ended with 14 hits.
Two OCU pitchers combined on a five-hitter.
