SHAWNEE – Oklahoma Baptist (25-19, 15-15 GAC) will make a quick drive to Southern Nazarene this Friday for a three-game Great American Conference series. The Bison need just one win to punch their ticket to the GAC Tournament starting May 5.
As it stands currently, OBU is slotted seventh in the standings. At this point, they'd play at Ouachita for a best two-out-of-three starting next Friday the 5th. Final seedings will be announced by the end of the weekend.
Most recently, the Bison played fourth-place Henderson State and lost two of three in games at Seminole State College. The green and gold won 14-4 before falling 7-2 and 2-1 in the finale.
OBU has won 10 of its last 15 games, due in large part to senior
Dan Pruitt. In that span of games, he has led the team with a .482 average, 1.054 slugging mark, eight homers, three triples, 31 RBI and 59 total bags. With those numbers, Pruitt has continued his rise in the GAC stat rankings. Check it out:
| Slugging |
Pruitt | 2nd | .798 |
| Home Runs |
Pruitt | 2nd | 18 | Alex Schroeder | 3rd | 16 |
| Runs Scored |
Pruitt | 4th | 56 | Isiah Lissade | 1st | 59 |
| RBI |
Kade Self | 2nd | 61 | Pruitt | 4th | 58 |
| Total Bases |
Pruitt | 2nd | 130 |
As for pitching, the Bison's usual three-game weekend starters include
Brek Galbreath,
Ryan Turbeville and
Jake Hamilton. Galbreath is third in innings pitched (71.2) and fifth in strikeouts looking (23) while Hamilton checks in at sixth in opposing batting average (.236) and fourth in strikeouts (86). Turbeville is tied for the staff lead with 12 games started. He has 51 strikeouts to 16 walks and posts a 6.58 ERA.
Southern Nazarene, a team that has lost 16 of the last 17 games against the Bison and has been defeated in 16 of the last 17 games this season, brings a 15-32 and 6-24 GAC record into the weekend. This will be its final games of the year.
SNU is headlined by DJ Van Atten. The likely GAC Player of the Year, he leads the conference in numerous categories: batting average (.480), slugging (.965), home runs (21), hits (82) and RBI (67). Equally as impressive is Van Atten has only struck out 26 times in 175 at-bats.
The Crimson's Storm main issue is pitching. They have a 9.77 team ERA which ranks 11th of 12 teams. Casey Minchey boasts the team's best ERA (7.53) and strikeout total (52) while Parker Presley has made the most appearances (21) with 35 strikeouts. Also of note, Presley has a team-high two saves.
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