SHAWNEE – Oklahoma Baptist got solid pitching and 10 hits in opening the 2017 baseball season with a 9-1 win over Baker Friday.
The Wildcats got an unearned run in the third inning off
Jinny Parra, who struck out six and allowed two hits in his scheduled three-inning appearance for the win.
Tyler Gibson fanned six in his hitless three innings,
AJ Merkel allowed a hit over two innings and
Brad Adams finished off the string of scoreless relief with a perfect ninth.
"I liked the pitching," said Bison Head Coach
Bobby Cox. "Jinny was a little tight when he went out but other than that I thought the pitching was just what we expected out of those guys."
OBU scored first, getting a run in the second when
Hunter Heath doubled and scored on an error.
The Bison added six in the third inning to break a 1-1 tie.
Juan Gonzalez got the rally going with a two-run single.
Zane Gelphman added a sacrifice fly,
Josh Timms added an RBI single before Joe Moran punctuated the inning with a two-run home run.
Two more runs scored in the seventh on a bases-loaded walk to
Dustyn Cook and a run-scoring error.
The Bison finished with 10 hits, including two each by
Kevin Olmeda, Heath and Timms.
"All in all, for 32 degrees it wasn't a bad opener," Cox said. "Good crowd. The promotion (poster signing) got a lot of people out here on a cold night. I hope they keep coming out."
