Sooner Athletic Conference

OCU Advances to Regional Title Game with 5-0 Win over No. 1 LCU

Posted by Rich Tortorelli - Fri, May 9, 2008 - [ Baseball ] - Viewed 199 times

OCU's David Dennis

OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma City University upended top-ranked Lubbock Christian 5-0 on Friday at Jim Wade Stadium in the NAIA Region VI baseball championships.

The fifth-ranked Stars improved to 52-10 on the strength of Mike Lee's two-hit, complete-game shutout. OCU advanced to the title game at 1 p.m. Saturday at Jim Wade Stadium in the driver's seat of the tournament.

The Stars would need a victory in the championship game Saturday to win the region, while Lubbock Christian would need to beat OCU twice.

Lubbock Christian (53-3) advanced to the title game by knocking out Texas Wesleyan with an 8-2 win Friday night.

Lee, a junior right-hander from Issaquah, Wash., retired the first nine batters he faced, striking out the side in the first inning.

Buck Britton and Armando Dominguez accounted for Lubbock Christian's hits. Britton hit a single to right field leading off the fourth, and Dominguez hit a double to left in the fifth.

Lee (10-2) pitched out of one-out, two-men-on jams in the fourth and the fifth. Lee notched 12 strikeouts.

"Mike Lee's performance speaks for itself," OCU coach Denney Crabaugh said. "We did everything we needed to do today. We will be ready for another challenge Saturday."

Kirk Walker hit a two-run double, David Mann scored on a wild pitch and David Dennis tied the single-season school record with a two-run home run. Garrett Regan went 2-for-4 for OCU.

Dennis, a senior first baseman from El Cajon, Calif., etched his name in OCU's record book alongside Nick Klusaw and Rick Nadeau with 27 homers. Dennis pounded a shot into the parking lot beyond the right-field fence in the fifth inning to close out OCU's scoring.

Mann reached home in the third, getting on base with a walk. Mann stole second, then advanced to third on a wild pitch. Mann scored on another wild pitch.

OCU hung the first loss of the season on Lubbock Christian right-hander Chris Holguin, who fell to 11-1. Holguin allowed eight hits and seven walks in eight innings.

The Stars defeated Lubbock Christian for the first time this year after losing all four meetings this season.

LCU eliminates Texas Wesleyan with 8-2 win

Jakob Cunningham, making his second start of the season, pitched a complete game and held No. 25 Texas Wesleyan University to six hits as No. 1 Lubbock Christian won 8-2 in an NAIA Region VI Championships elimination game Friday night at Jim Wade Stadium.

Cunningham was impressive with his control, allowing just one walk and striking out five batters. He threw just 105 pitches in the outing. Buck Britton gave him offensive support early, hitting a lead-off home run in the bottom of the first inning for a 1-0 lead. Britton went 3-for-4 with four runs batted in, and his single in the second inning with the bases loaded scored two and led to a throwing error that allowed Chase Robertson to reach home for a 5-0 lead.

The Rams produced a pair of hits in the fifth inning and Taylor Miller's single scored Jerry Fisher, who had reached on a double. The only other Rams run came off a Ryan Jacobi single in the seventh inning. The Chaps grabbed insurance with a three-run fifth inning, which was highlighted by a Karlton Banks single to score a pair of runs followed by an RBI single by Britton.

Texas Wesleyan ends Oklahoma Baptist's season

A 10-6 loss at the hands of 25th-ranked Texas Wesleyan capped the season for Oklahoma Baptist on Friday at Oklahoma City University's Jim Wade Stadium. The No. 21 Bison finished with a 44-16 record.

OBU took the early 1-0 lead in the top of the second when courtesy runner Eric Neff scored from first with two outs on a dropped popup in shallow right off the bat of Christian Ruiz. The Rams tied the game in their half of the inning on an RBI single by Mikey Valdez.

Things looked up for the Bison in the fourth inning. Ruiz doubled home Chris Chambers and Josh Collazo ahead of an RBI single by Keith Johnson to give the Bison a 4-1 edge.

The run by Collazo gave him the single season runs record with 79, eclipsing the 78 scored in 1989 by Jose Olmeda. Collazo's record season also includes single season marks with 22 home runs and 100 RBI. He also came within three hits of the single season record of 93, set by Sal Gomez in 1997.

A controversial call got the Rams a run in the bottom of the fifth when Zach Smith was called safe on a not-very-close play at the plate. Catcher Mason Reilly applied a tag well before the runner reached base as Smith attempted to score on a double by Butch Ballez.

Another call went Texas Wesleyan's way in its five-run sixth. Antoine Cole bunted the ball and his bat hit the live ball in front of home plate. Instead of an out, the home plate umpire ruled that the ball was in foul territory. Cole singled and later scored.

OBU got a run back in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Cooper, but Texas Wesleyan scored twice in the seventh and added an eighth-inning run to take a 10-5 lead.

Johnson belted his sixth home run of the season to start the ninth, but OBU got no other runs in the inning, stranding Cooper at first. Cooper and Johnson had two hits each for the Bison in OBU's seven-hit offense.