Evansville, IN – On Wednesday night, the Mighty Oaks baseball team traveled to the west side of Evansville to take on the Screaming Eagles of the University of Southern Indiana. USI recently moved from NCAA Division 2 to Division 1 and is currently in its first year as a D1 program.
The home team took a 0-1 lead in the first inning. This lead would grow significantly in the bottom of the third. A two-run homerun from Tucker Ebest started a six-run inning, the Eagles were up 0-7 after three.
Another big inning for USI followed in the next inning. A three-run homerun from Jack Ellis helped the home team score five more runs this inning, moving the score to 0-12.
The deficit for Oakland City had grown to 0-13 before the Mighty Oaks plated their first run. In the top of the sixth,
Xander Willis led off the inning with a double down the leftfield line. He advanced to third on a fly out from
Sam Pinckert and later scored on a wild pitch.
In the top of the seventh, the Mighty Oaks were able to prevent a mercy rule loss, by putting up a three spot.
Alec Pruitt led off with a walk,
Conner Oxley came in off the bench and singled to left field.
Noah Baugher put the ball in play and an error by the shortstop loaded the bases.
Xander Willis connected for another double, once again down the leftfield line, scoring two runs for Oakland City.
Sam Pinckert followed with a groundout, which brought home
Noah Baugher. This made the score 4-13 in Evansville.
A triple from
Conner Oxley in the eight, brought home two more runs.
Garrett Causey (walk) and
Treven Madden (single) were both able to score on the extra-base hit from Oxley. In the bottom half of the inning, USI scored two more runs, putting the score at 6-15. This ended up being the final score of the midweek affair between Southern Indiana and Oakland City.
Conner Oxley and
Xander Willis led the Mighty Oaks offense, both collecting two hits and two RBIs.
On the mound for the Mighty Oaks,
Tommy Johnson (L, 2.1 IP, 4 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 0 SO),
Owen Spears (1.1 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO),
Garrett Whiteker (1.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO) and
Weston Allen (3 SO, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO) split the duties.
Next up for the Mighty Oaks baseball team is a very important series versus Ohio Christian University. On Saturday the team will travel to Circleville, Ohio. A doubleheader will be played on Sunday, followed by one more game on Monday. Qualification for the River States Conference tournament is on the line, making these some of the biggest games of the year for coach Andy Lasher and his squad.
