ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – No. 18 Henderson State (9-0) kept the Oklahoma Baptist bats in check and notched a 7-3 GAC victory over the Bison at Clyde Berry Field on Friday.
Tomorrow, the two teams will meet in a noon doubleheader to wrap up both teams' conference opener.
The Reddies' staff, led by Spencer Taack, limited the Bison (4-4) to six hits and three runs, the fewest scored by OBU this season.
At the start though, it appeared the green and gold would find a game's full of offensive success. Back-to-back two-out walks were issued to
Dan Pruitt and
Alex Schroeder. What followed was an RBI single from
Ramon Gomez through the left side scoring Pruitt. That gave the Bison a 1-0 lead.
Taack then retired the OBU side in the second before the hosts got a 2-1 advantage. With the bases loaded and two outs, an error by the Bison brought home two Reddies. A frame later, David Vilches led off the third with a bomb to left field. A couple sequences later, a wild pitch pushed Greyson Stevens across home plate.
Down 4-1,
Jose Parga got a little momentum for OBU, socking a solo homer, his second of the year, in the fifth inning. However, the Bison couldn't really pull closer.
HSU added two more runs in the fifth and sixth to make the tally 6-2. Pruitt added OBU's final run with his fifth blast of the season in the eighth, but that would be the last of the team's scoring.
OBU's six hits came to Pruitt, Parga, Schroeder, Gomez,
Troy Shields and
Walker Keller. On the mound,
Bo Dallas and
Nolan Feazle combined for five strikeouts while Dallas induced nine groundouts.
