SHAWNEE – Bo Dallas gave a sensational performance on the mound as Oklahoma Baptist defeated Arkansas Tech 4-3 on Friday in the series opener at Bobby Cox Field at Ford Park.
Dallas matched his season-bests with eight innings pitched and nine strikeouts as OBU improved to 12-13 and 8-8 in the Great American Conference. For ATU (15-9, 9-7 GAC), its five-game winning streak was snapped.
Early on, it appeared both offenses would have strong days.
Bottom of the first action saw
Dan Pruitt knock in his 13th home run of the year.
A frame later, the Wonder Boys went in front. After Evan Hafley and Sawyer Duddleston reached via error and hit-by-pitch, Shelby Quiggins connected with a double to deep right field pushing one across. Then in the next at-bat, Carter Thessing put a single into right scoring two more.
Down 3-1, OBU responded in the second.
Kade Self and
Trey Furrey each had doubles in the first three at-bats with Furrey driving in Self. The game was then tied by
Brandon Brewer. The shortstop connected with a two-out single to left field and pushed Furrey across home.
Self later notched an RBI groundout and scored Pruitt in the third. That gave OBU a 4-3 advantage.
What followed was Dallas and the Bison defense shutting out ATU. From the fourth through sixth frames, the Wonder Boys had chances. In fact, the visitors put four in scoring position. However, Dallas tallied a couple strikeouts and induced a few ground-ball outs to keep the score at 4-3.
In the other dugout, ATU's Patrick Miner did has part, too. From the fourth through the eighth, just one Bison reached scoring position.
Dallas and company, and reliever
Sam Gamboa, then closed the victory in the final two innings.
The Wonder Boys got bases loaded in the eighth before Dallas' ninth strikeout ended that frame. An inning later, Gamboa came in after an infield bunt by Sam Stephenson. He wound up striking out two and got a groundout to earn his first save of the year.
