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Box Score 2 |
Box Score 3 Pittsburgh, PA – A big weekend, with playoff contention on the line for Oakland City baseball. After a win in the first game, things were looking good. With Ohio Christian dropping a game to WVU Tech on Friday, the Mighty Oaks qualified for the River States Conference tournament for the second year in a row.
Game 1
Gehrig Tenhumberg dominated the Pioneers lineup for eight innings. While he prevented Point Park from scoring, his offense put up one run in the fourth inning. With one out,
Xander Willis got on base after an error by the Pioneers third baseman. He advanced to third on a failed pickoff attempt.
Victor Alvarez came in clutch with an RBI triple to put the Mighty Oaks up 1-0.
An inning later, singles from
Conner Oxley and
Aron Busick were followed by a 2-RBI triple from
Noah Baugher, putting Oakland city up 3-0.
This would be the score until the bottom of the ninth, where Tenhumberg gave up a lead-off double. He was replaced by Oakland City's closer,
Evan Price. He got the first out on a lineout to third base. In the next at bat, Point Park found their way right back in it, with a deep fly to center field. This made the score 3-2 with still two outs left to be recorded. Two fly balls to right field were caught by
Garrett Causey to wrap up the first game of the series.
A very important win for the Mighty Oaks versus the top ranked team in the River States Conference.
Game 2
The second game of the doubleheader was another close one. Point Park got an early lead, as they scored one in the bottom of the first inning. After this, a lot of zeros were found on the scoreboard. The Mighty Oaks had some runners in scoring position, but were never able to come through with the big hit. The lone hit for Oakland City in this seven inning game, came from
Victor Alvarez.
Point Park would plate two more runs in the sixth inning, making it a 0-3 ballgame. This ended up being the final score in Pittsburgh. The pitchers for Oakland City were
Ben Simmons (L, 5.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 6 K) and
Owen Spears (0.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K).
Game 3
The third game was originally scheduled for Friday, however the weather in Pittsburgh did not cooperate, forcing the game to be pushed back to Saturday. On Friday however, the Mighty Oaks players and coaching staff found out that their spot in the River States Conference tournament was clinched, as West Virginia Tech University beat Ohio Christian University. This eliminated Ohio Christian from playoff contention.
On Saturday, at noon the third game of the series started. The Mighty Oaks saw a different starting lineup than usual, resting most of the starters for the tournament which will start on Thursday. Point Park hurler Sebastian Rodriguez was cruising and did not allow a baserunner till the eighth inning.
It was
Mason Simon who broke up the perfect game with an infield single. Simon stole second base and was later brought home on a single to left field from
JT Smallwood. This was the sole run the Mighty Oaks were able to score, versus four runs from the home team, resulting in a 1-4 loss for Oakland City.
For the Mighty Oaks,
Christian Burgrabe,
Hunter Callahan,
Blake Mincey,
Luke Osborn and
Garrett Whiteker all toed the rubber.
Coach Andy Lasher and his squad will travel to Chillicothe, Ohio on Wednesday to start the River States Conference tournament a day later. With the Mighty Oaks being the six seed, they will face the one seed in the first game. At the time of publishing, the number one seed is yet to be decided, as Point Park, Midway and Indiana Southeast are all still in the race to win the regular season.
