SHAWNEE – Two strong long relief outings and a walk-off home run propelled Oklahoma Baptist to a pair of come-from-behind wins Monday to take the series from Arkansas-Monticello, 6-5 and 7-6.
Brett Berghammer mashed his first home run of the season into the visitor bullpen beyond right field to cap a big day for the Bison.
OBU got 6.2 innings of relief from
Carson McPherson (2-1) to win the opener after trailing 5-2 in the seventh. The Bison then benefitted from three innings of shutout relief from
Blake Whitehead (2-0) to take the second game after trailing 6-0 in the fifth inning of the scheduled seven-inning game.
In the opener, the Bison took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI ground out by
Zane Gelphman and an RBI single by
Hunter Heath.
The Weevils scored three runs in the third and two in the top of the seventh for a 5-2 lead.
Heath and
Austin Whittaker drew bases-loaded walks to make it a 5-4 game in the bottom of the seventh.
Berghammer doubled in Joe Moran to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth and
Kevin Olmeda drove in
Dustyn Cook with an RBI ground out for the final margin.
McPherson struck out eight batters in 6.2 innings and allowed one earned and one unearned run.
OBU had seven hits in the opener, including two by Berghammer.
Monticello scored once in the first and three times in the second inning to take a 4-0 lead before building the margin to 6-0 in the top of the fifth.
Olmeda had an RBI groundout and Cook scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-2 in the bottom of the fifth.
The Bison scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth with an RBI single by Moran, an RBI double by Berghammer, an RBI ground out by Olmeda and a game-tying single by
Zane Gelphman.
In the top of the eighth, Berghammer gunned down Andres Rios at home from right field with
Juan Gonzalez applying the tag just in front of the plate.
Berghammer got his third hit of the game to lead off the bottom of the eighth, getting a hero's welcome at the plate with the walk-off.
OBU had just six hits in the game with Berghammer getting half of those – the home run and two doubles.
Whitehead struck out two batters and allowed two hits and no walks over his three innings of relief to get the win.
Now 11-9 overall and 6-6 in the Great American Conference, the Bison step outside of GAC action Tuesday to host Mid-American Christian at 6 p.m.
