ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – Oklahoma Baptist opened its weekend's series with a 6-4 win over Ouachita Baptist on Friday night at Langston Field.
The Bison (30-11, 22-3 GAC) held off a feisty OUA (10-32, 5-20 GAC) squad who made a late push, plating four runs to draw within one with only a frame remaining. But Oklahoma Baptist stood firm and added another score to stamp the victory.
OBU has now charted 30 wins in three consecutive seasons.
A scoreless inning rolled by before the green and gold landed four across home plate. A Samantha Campos brought around Morgan Max, who leadoff with a single before an Adi Reese sacrifice fly allowed Campos to score to push the Bison ahead 2-0.
In the next at-bat, a Sammie Greene singled plated two, Sydney Adler and Cassidy Morrow.
OBU tacked on another in the fourth after Reese scored on a throwing scoring error by the Tigers' catcher.
Then Ouachita Baptist charted three runs on four hits in the fifth before adding another to cut their deficit to one.
A Kennedy Clark ground out in the seventh widened the gap to two, a comfortable enough cushion to be sustained by the Bison defense. At the bottom of the final frame, pitcher Maggie Place struck out the leadoff batter before forcing a pop-up and fly-out to retire the side.
Place collected her first save after registering two strikeouts and surrendering one hit in 2.0 innings. Kayleigh Jones (16-4) tossed 5.0 innings prior to Place's arrival to secure the victory.
Jones collected 10 punchouts while allowing eight hits and four runs. It is Jones' ninth double-digit strikeout performance of the year.
Greene and Max turned in three-hit performances, accounting for over half of OBU's total connections. Greene brought in two runners while Max crossed home plate once.
NEXT UP
The clubs will return for a doubleheader tomorrow at Langston Field, set to begin at noon.
