SHAWNEE – Oklahoma Baptist completed its season sweep of Southern Nazarene with a 7-1 victory Sunday, honoring the seniors with a win.
OBU celebrated Senior Day in the last scheduled regular season home game, but the Bison hope to add games to the schedule with the NCCAA Central Regional still two weeks out.
OBU also learned Saturday that it will host the regional, which was originally set for Conway, Arkansas.
Prior to the game, OBU paid homage to seniors Ryan Joyce, Trevor Ezell, Felipe Gonzalez, Nathan Thompson, Thaddaeus Rhoades, Brandon Cuddy, Chad Bennett and Mike Gould.
Thompson went the distance on the mound Saturday, taking over the Great American Conference strikeout lead with 11 on the day, while becoming the 11th Bison ever to record 100 strikeouts in a season and moving into a tie with Chad Barton for ninth on season strikeout list with 103. He allowed one run on six hits to improve to 7-3 on the year.
The Bison got on the scoreboard first with Hunter Heath's 10th home run of the season in the first inning.
SNU tied it in the second on a home run by Mike Descisciolo but OBU took the lead for good in the home half of the inning on an RBI single by Cody Ziegler.
The Bison added three runs in the fourth on a wild pitch to score Joseph Moran, ahead of RBI singles by Kevin Olmeda and Heath.
Gonzalez added an RBI single in the sixth and Cuddy scored on an error off the bat of Rhoades in the eighth for the final margin.
OBU pounded out 15 hits in the game, including five by Heath, three by Joyce and two each by Gonzalez and Ziegler.
OBU improved to 33-15 overall and will end the season tied for the lead in wins in the GAC at 22, though they will not claim a conference title, having played a full schedule.
No games remain on the schedule but fans should check with www.obubison.com for updates to the schedule. The Regional Tournament is tentatively scheduled to start May 16.
