EDMOND, Okla. – Central Oklahoma prevailed over Oklahoma Baptist 8-7 in 12 innings on Sunday afternoon at Wendell Simmons Field. It was the season opener for both teams.
Tomorrow, OBU will continue play at UCO's First Pitch Classic with a 3 p.m. contest against Pittsburg State.
Season-opening competition favored the Bison after two frames on this day.
In the first, the green and gold got a few two-out walks before
Trey Furrey drew a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch scoring
Walker Keller.
A frame later, OBU exploded for five runs.
Ramon Gomez got things going with an RBI single which plated
Jose Parga. After two wild pitches pushed across two more,
Dan Pruitt absolutely rocked a ball over the right-center wall. The two-run bomb also scored Keller.
At that point, it was 6-0 Bison. UCO cut into the deficit in the home half of the second with a pair of runs on bases-loaded walks.
A few innings passed before OBU scored again. In the fifth, Parga delivered a two-out, run-scoring single through the right side. That hit pushed
Chris Cook across home and moved the scoreboard to 7-2.
Despite finding themselves down five runs again, the hosts responded with a big sixth frame. In fact, the Bronchos would tie the game.
After UCO's first two batters reached, Jaden Parsons doubled down the right-field line scoring the home team's second run. Two batters later, UCO tied the game as Garrett Takamatsu smacked a grand slam to right center.
Over the next five-plus innings, neither team could break through.
It felt like OBU would be the team to break the 7-7 tie though. Pitchers
Bo Dallas and
Garrett Kellogg-Clarke combined to toss 6.1 frames, each notched four strikeouts and induced a combined five flyouts and four groundouts.
During those innings from Dallas and Kellogg-Clarke, the Bison defense also got an incredible tag-out at home by
Troy Shields in the tenth. A triple by Parsons to left saw a failed diving attempt, allowing the ball to roll all the way to the wall. The relay then made it to Shields who tagged out the Broncho runner.
With those Bison pitchers dealing, the OBU offense had chances. Between the ninth and 12th frames, the green and gold put six runners on base including five in scoring position. Unfortunately, the visitors could not get them across.
The four-hour, three-minute game finally came to an end in the bottom of the 12th. Clayton Peterson hit a grounder deep into the first-base gap and the moments that followed resulted in an error from the OBU second baseman allowing Kaleb Glass to score.
By game's end,
Isiah Lissade, Keller and Pruitt each tallied multiple hits to lead the Bison.
