SHAWNEE – The last time the Oklahoma Baptist baseball team met Harding in the Great American Conference Tournament, the Bison cruised to a 12-3 win in the 2019 championship game. In this game it was all but smooth sailing as Harding gave OBU all they had, but fortunately for the Bison they held on and took a 7-6 victory in Friday's tournament quarterfinal at Bobby Cox Field at Ford Park.
OBU jumped out to an early 4-0 lead off a
Colin Prince sacrifice RBI and a
Kade Self three-run home run. Harding clawed its way back in the fourth and fifth innings, scoring three runs to cut the Bison lead back down to 4-3. In the bottom of the fifth,
Cliff Pradd answered back with his 14
th home run of the season and extended the lead to two.
After a quiet sixth and seventh inning the Bisons tied the game up in the top of the eighth with a Harrison Heffley home run. Unfortunately for Harding, the Bison were able to answer back in the bottom of the eighth with two runs.
Ramon Enriquez broke the 5-5 tie with the third home run of the game for OBU before
Eric Carlson walked in the seventh and final run for the Bison.
Harding would not go away quietly after a successful two-out challenge to add a sixth run to their tally and prevent the win for the Bison for one final batter. OBU pitcher
Tyler Frank was able to keep his composure after hearing the Bison fight song and struck out Heffley to end the game.
The Bison will now head to Arkadelphia to participate in the GAC semifinal round. OBU will take on host Henderson State on Monday, May 17, at 4:30 p.m.
