SHAWNEE – Following a tremendous weekend, Oklahoma Baptist will remain at home for a non-conference game against East Central tomorrow at 3 p.m. Earlier this season, the Bison swept the Tigers while totaling 59 runs in the three-game series.
OBU won all three contests against the visiting Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys. Those results improved the Bison's record to 14-13 and 10-8 in the GAC.
The green and gold's pitching staff was the key against ATU. In 26 innings pitched, they allowed eight earned runs, struck out 26, limited the Wonder Boys to a .219 batting average and posted a 2.08 ERA.
With those totals, the Bison staff made some moves in the statistical rankings:
· No. 20 in the nation in strikeouts per nine innings (10.6)
· GAC leader with 264 strikeouts
· Fifth-best team ERA (6.00) in the GAC
·
Bo Dallas: second-best ERA (3.09) and fourth-most Ks (48) in the conference
·
Brek Galbreath: 42 strikeouts are tenth in the GAC
Offensively, OBU did what it needed to against ATU with
Dan Pruitt leading the way. He batted .500 with a double, triple and homer included in 10 at-bats. He added his 13th home run of the season in the series, moving him two off the national lead. Additionally,
Isiah Lissade added a home run to boost OBU's season total to 53. That's one behind D2 leader Metropolitan State (CO).
As has been noted throughout the year, the Bison's offense stacks up well nationally.
· t32nd with 62 doubles
· 46th with 283 hits
· t3rd in home runs (53)
· 234 runs scored are 28th
· 29th in scoring (8.7)
· 13th in slugging percentage (.552)
Individually, OBU possesses one of the best lineups in the GAC. Included with Pruitt:
·
Kade Self: GAC leader in batting average (.452) and second in slugging (.890)
·
Alex Schroeder: top-7 marks in RBI (35) and slugging (.701)
· Lissade: GAC leader in hits (42) & stolen bases (11); eighth in runs scored (30) & HRs (8)
·
Walker Keller: His 10 doubles are tied for seventh
In the other dugout, East Central has had a year to forget. They have lost 23 games in a row and are 1-26 this spring. During the three-game series against OBU back on March 12-13, the Tigers allowed the Bison to hit .400 with 25 extra-base hits, including 12 home runs.
This season, ECU's staff has been the major issue. As a unit, they have a 12.72 earned run average, allowed 59 home runs and a .662 slugging mark to opponents.
Offensively, the Tigers have a few players to keep an eye on:
· Mason Glowacki: team leader in hits (36), doubles (6) and batting average (.346)
· Colton Schaper-Kotter: Second on ECU in average (.303) and hits (20)
· Christian Whitaker: tied for the team lead with three HRs with 17 RBI
· Eric Towsley: also has three home runs
For more info on the green and gold, follow their Instagram account at
obu.baseball and on Twitter at
OBU_Baseball.
