SHAWNEE – Oklahoma Baptist (0-2) will host the Missouri – St. Louis Tritons for a two-game series starting Sunday, Feb. 8 at 2 p.m. at Bobby Cox Field.
This will be just the second and third NCAA D2 meetings between the two schools. A season ago, UMSL and OBU met in Edmond at the UCO First Picht Classic.
Dave Myrick will be on the call of Sunday's game on the Bison Sports Network. Below are quick hits on the two teams.
For the Bison:
Newcomer
Quinn Johnson is off to a great start. He's hitting .714, the 11th best mark in the nation. He's got five hits in seven at-bats.
Catcher
Braden Smith is doing well too with a .571 batting average.
After that, though, no other Bison player is hitting above .167. As a unit, the team's .231 average is seventh in the Great American Conference and 100th nationally.
On the pitching front, OBU's 5.71 team ERA is second in the GAC and No. 50 in D2.
Landon Gutierrez,
Logan Wade and
Luis Pezzotti have combined to toss 8.1 innings and not allowed any earned runs.
In terms of strikeouts,
Kody Bialas and
Grayson Connell each have a staff-high four.
For the Tritons:
In two games against Pittsburg State and Emporia State, UMSL has been outscored 35-1.
The Tritons have a .196 batting average to this point. Justin Terhaar leads that front with a batting average of .400.
It goes without saying, but pitching has been lacking early this year for UMSL. Their staff is ERA is an unbelievable 20.77.
PSU and Emporia combined to hit .418 earlier this week.
The Tritons' staff has given up eight extra-base hits including four doubles and two homers. Missouri-St. Louis pitchers have also issued 21 walks with 17 strikeouts.
