OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma City University battered Oklahoma Baptist 25-2 on Thursday at Jim Wade Stadium in the NAIA Region VI baseball championships.

Top-ranked Lubbock Christian faces fifth-ranked Oklahoma City at 11 a.m. Friday at Jim Wade Stadium in the winners bracket final. No. 21 Oklahoma Baptist takes on 25th-ranked Texas Wesleyan at 2:30 p.m. Friday in an elimination game.

The Stars (51-10) banged out 29 hits and pounded seven home runs. Kirk Walker and B.J. Wheeler each put together five hits.

Walker, a freshman shortstop from Bakersfield, Calif., hammered two homers in a game for the first time in his Stars career. Walker took a 3-2 pitch deep out to left field in the third inning and a 1-2 offering again out to left in the sixth for a two-run homer. Walker went 5-for-7, scored five times and drove in four.

Wheeler, a junior right fielder from Abilene, Texas, was 5-for-7 with four runs scored and three RBIs. Wheeler nailed a three-run blast to right in the third.

Also going deep for OCU were Landon Camp, Sammy Lee, Brandon Moss and Brent Weaver. The Stars have pummeled 139 homers this season, two off the NAIA single-season team record set by OCU's 1988 and 1999 squads.

Tyler Kelsey worked 8.1 innings, striking out seven and scattering seven hits, a walk and a hit batsmen. Kelsey, a senior left-hander from Edmond, Okla., improved to 9-0 while recording 111 pitches. Michael Bryant retired the last two batters to finish the game.

OCU seized a 6-0 first-inning lead on David Dennis' RBI base hit, David Mann's two-run double and Moss' three-run shot off the scoreboard in left.

The Stars went up 17-1 in the sixth on a seven-run frame. Caleb Annesley had an RBI single, Camp a three-run homer and Walker's solo shot.

Mann went 3-for-5 with two runs scored and two RBIs, while Annesley was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI.  

LCU knocks out Wayland Baptist 10-4 

Lubbock Christian (52-2) benefited off a pair of back-to-back home runs, including a grand slam by Ryan Burke, as they eliminated No. 13 Wayland Baptist from the NAIA Region VI Championships with a 10-4 victory.

Wayland Baptist jumped out to a 4-1 lead after LCU scored the opening run in the first inning with a two-out single scoring Will Stramp, as the Pioneers received two-run homers from starting pitcher Todd Jeffress and Jonathan Torres in the second inning. The Chaps had trouble responding, hitting into a pair of double plays with runners in scoring position and less than two outs, but they finally got to Jeffress in the fifth inning. 

Rob Learned hit his second home run of the tournament for a pair of runs, and Tyler Johnson followed with a solo shot to tie the game 4-4. LCU regained the lead in the sixth inning after Jeffress intentionally walked Buck Britton, who was 0-for-3, to load the bases for Burke. Burke responded with his sixth home run and his second grand slam of the season for an 8-4 lead. 

That would be it for Jeffress on the mound, as he went 5.1 innings and gave up 12 hits and eight earned runs while striking out only one Chaps batter.

Chris Nettles relieved Jeffress, but the results did not immediately change. Nettles' first pitch was thrown behind Will Stramp, but the following pitch was sent over the left field wall to complete the second round of back-to-back home runs for the Chaps and a 9-4 lead. The Chaps closed the scoring in the eighth inning with a sacrifice fly by Learned, scoring Britton.