SHAWNEE – Jose Parga hit three home runs during a 16-6 triumph over Northwestern Oklahoma State on Saturday. That victory secured the series win for Oklahoma Baptist. The visitors followed up with a 14-9 game-three win to salvage their ride home to Alva.
GAME ONE
Parga became only the third Bison player in the Division II era to record a trio of home runs in a single game. Joey Pledger and current assistant coach
Eric Carlson did so during the 2019 campaign in games against Oklahoma Christian and East Central, respectively.
In the second, Parga smoked a shot over left field, a grand slam, and broke the scoreless tie. Then in the third, OBU increased its lead to 8-0. A two-run double by
Trey Furrey plated
Ramon Gomez and
Kade Self before Furrey later scored on an infield error.
The Rangers did get ahold of Bison pitching in the fourth though. After a two-out walk to Shaughn Kelly, back-to-back run-scoring hits from Hayden Priest and Joseph Frisby pushed two across for Northwestern. The visitors scored twice more after that with a hit from Fred Buckson and Priest scoring on a passed ball.
That turned out to be all the real damage NWOSU mustered in the game.
Brek Galbreath ended up tossing 6.2 innings, tied his season high with nine strikeouts and got a combined 11 groundouts and flyouts.
OBU continued its offensive onslaught in the fifth as Parga and
Cade Kissel each homered. Plus,
Dan Pruitt drove in
Walker Keller with a single. That made the tally 11-4. Then an inning later, Parga notched his third bomb, this one a two-run shot making the score 13-4.
By game's end, Parga went 4-for-5 with seven RBI while Gomez, Pruitt, Kissel and Furrey each notched multiple hits.
GAME TWO
The Rangers got after OBU's pitching efforts in the finale, scoring 14 runs on 14 hits.
After a solo homer by
Alex Schroeder tied things up at 2-2 in the first, Northwestern came back to plate nine runs in the second and third frames.
Second-inning action brought a sacrifice fly from Yugo Hamakawa and run-scoring hit from Brandon Holdren.
An inning later, 11 Rangers came to the plate. Included in that frame were two home runs by Kelly and Blake Hoffman as well as a two-RBI single by Brayden Koenig. Heading to the bottom of the third, it was 11-2 visitors.
The Bison did make things a bit closer in the sixth courtesy of Pruitt. He hit his nation-leading 17th homer of the year, a grand slam, moving the scoreboard to 14-9.
There was a little momentum after that and in the seventh,
Devin Crawford came in retired the NWOSU side. Offensively, Self got a lead-off single in the home half of the frame. However, reliever Edwin Colon would come in shortly thereafter and get two strikeouts to help preserve the Rangers win.
OBU will be back in action on Tuesday, April 12 at 6 p.m. when Southeastern Oklahoma State comes to town.
