Charleston, WV – On Saturday and Sunday, the Mighty Oaks baseball team traveled to West Virginia for a three-game River States Conference series versus the Golden Bears of WVU Tech. The games were played at GoMart Ballpark, a stadium that belongs to the Charleston Dirty Birds of the Atlantic League.
Game 1
In a windy Charleston, West Virginia, the Mighty Oaks took the field at 3:00 PM on Saturday for the opening game of the series versus the Golden Bears of WVU Tech.
Oakland City scored first, when
Sam Pinckert deposited a ball deep over the center field wall in the second inning. After a walk and a double in the bottom half of the inning, the score was all squared up at one.
In the bottom of the third the Golden Bears took a 1-5 lead. A double was followed by a sacrifice bunt. The runner on third was able to score on the next play. Another base hit and a homerun, gave the home team a four-run lead.
Their lead grew a little more in the next inning. While the Mighty Oaks bats stayed silent, the Golden Bears scored two in the bottom of the fourth. The score became 1-10 in the fifth after the bases loaded up and Jordan Thurmond hit a double to right field to give the Golden Bears some more insurance runs.
Sam Pinckert gave the Mighty Oaks a little spark of life in the sixth, going yard for the second time of the day, this time to right field.
In the seventh inning, a
Jared Kirkman single was followed by a double from
Aron Busick, putting runners on second and third base. A sacrifice fly from
Noah Baugher and an RBI single from
Chase Christie made the score 4-10.
One inning later, Kirkman came through again. After a two-out double from
Xander Willis, Kirkman brought him home with a triple in the left centerfield gap. This brought Oakland City to five runs.
In the bottom of the eight, the Golden Bears scored three more runs, making the final score 5-13, since no offense was created in the top of the ninth.
The Mighty Oaks pitchers in the first game of the series were
Gehrig Tenhumberg (L, 4 IP, 6 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO),
Blake Mincey (1 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO) and
Milan van der Breggen (3 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1BB, 1 SO).
Game 2
After a tough loss on Saturday, the Mighty Oaks showed up eager to come back and win the series on Sunday. After getting down 0-2 in the first three innings, the Oakland City offense figured things out at the plate.
Singles from
Noah Baugher,
Sam Pinckert and
Oliver Hamilton loaded the bases with no outs.
Garrett Causey came through with an RBI single and
Xander Willis popped out in foul territory but brought the tying run.
One inning later, in the fifth,
Aron Busick led the inning off with a double. He advanced to third base on a single from
Noah Baugher. Busick was able to score the go-ahead run on a wild pitch.
Two more runs were added in the sixth inning. With the bases loaded,
Aron Busick got on base due to a fielder's choice and collected an RBI,
Noah Baugher did the exact same thing in his at bat. The score was now 5-2. In the bottom half of the inning, the Golden Bears got one run back, but the Mighty Oaks were still leading.
An important inning for the Mighty Oaks followed. A lead off double from
Oliver Hamilton was followed by a triple from
Xander Willis. Willis scored on a single from
Chase Christie.
Victor Alvarez followed with a double, putting runners on second and third base. Another base hit, this time from
Jared Kirkman, put the eighth and ninth Oakland City runs on the board.
The final score would stay at 9-3. A good showing on the offensive side of the plate was backed up by some solid pitching from
Christian Burgrabe (W, 5 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 2 SO) and
Owen Spears (4 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 SO).
Game 3
In the rubber match of the series,
Ben Simmons who was celebrating his birthday took the mound for Oakland City. He gave his team a good chance to win by pitching six innings, allowing just four hits, two runs (both earned). He walked two and struck out two.
As a birthday gift, the offense gave Simmons a comfortable three run lead in the first inning. Singles from
Aron Busick and
Noah Baugher started off the inning. Busick was able to score on a base hit from
Oliver Hamilton.
Garrett Causey followed with a 2-RBI double.
With two runners on in the second inning,
Noah Baugher added two more runs with a triple into the left center field gap.
In the bottom of the third, the home team was able to score their first run. Oakland City answered right back in the top of the fourth with a run for themselves.
Aron Busick, who led off the inning with a double, scored on a single from
Oliver Hamilton. The Golden Bears scored one more run in the bottom half of the inning.
The score stayed at 6-2 for a while. In the top of the seventh inning, the Mighty Oaks added some insurance runs. A single from
Victor Alvarez scored two runs. With the bases loaded,
Noah Baugher drew a walk to score the 9-2.
Mason Simon added one more run with a sacrifice fly to right field, which allowed Alvarez to score.
With a score of 10-2,
Hunter Callahan came in to pitch the last inning, shutting the door while striking out one. This secured the victory of both the game and the series. This win put the Mighty Oaks at a 6-6 River States Conference record and a 22-9 overall record.
Next up on the schedule for the Oakland City baseball team is an RSC series versus the Grenadiers of Indiana University Southeast. This series will take place in New Albany, Indiana on Friday and Saturday.
