Bison Win Home Run Derby Over the Boll Weevils

SHAWNEE – On a blustery April afternoon, the Oklahoma Baptist baseball team took down Arkansas-Monticello 9-8. The teams competed in a home run derby, as the two-teams combined for a total of eight home runs over the nine innings. 14 of the 17 runs scored came off hits that made it over the backstop. Each team was responsible for four of the eight total home runs.
 
The Boll Weevils got on the board first, off an RBI single in the top of the first. OBU answered back in the bottom of the first when Hector Ruvalcaba posted the first home run of the afternoon, batting in Kaimana Bartolome. Monticello then followed OBU's home run with two of its own in the top of the second to take a 4-2 lead. 
 
The Bison tied the game up in the bottom of the third when Ramon Enriquez blasted the baseball right out of left field, sending Ruvalcaba home. The Boll Weevils reclaimed a two-run lead in the top of the fourth, with its third home run. Like the inning prior, the Bison came back from a two-run deficit to reach a 6-6 tie, when Walker Keller scored with the Bison's third (his first) home run of the game. 
 
After a quiet fifth inning for both teams, the derby picked back up in the top of the sixth, as Monticello posted its final home run of the game to take an 8-6 lead. Answering back immediately, as they had done all game, the Bison tied up the game for the third time in the bottom of the sixth when Cliff Pradd and Ruvalcaba posted an RBI single and a double respectively. 
 
After shutting down the Boll Weevils in back-to-back innings, Keller put the game away, in the bottom of the eighth, with the fourth Bison home run of the game. This home run was Keller's second of the game. 
 
Keller now has six home runs on the season, and he finished the series with six RBIs.
 
Up next, the Bison will make the short drive up to the University of Central Oklahoma for a mid-week match up with Bronchos. First pitch of the contest is set for 6 p.m.