Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 Wilmore, KY – After a disappointing River States Conference tournament, the Mighty Oaks baseball team regrouped themselves and prepared to participate in the NCCAA Mideast Regional tournament. The tournament is hosted by Asbury University, the other participants are Kentucky Christian University and Alice Lloyd College.
Game 1
The tournament started on Tuesday, when the No. 1 seed Mighty Oaks took on No. 4 seed Alice Lloyd at 1:00 PM.
Oakland City had to surrender an early deficit as Alice Lloyd took a 0-1 lead before an out was recorded.
Christian Burgrabe, who had already taken over the pitching duties for Oakland City was able to get out of a bases loaded jam. After a double from
Noah Baugher was followed by an RBI single from
Sam Pinckert, the game was tied at one after the first inning.
The Mighty Oaks took a 3-1 lead in the following inning. A single from
Treven Madden was followed by back-to-back doubles from
Xander Willis and
Noah Gilbert.
In the top of the third inning, the Eagles of Alice Lloyd College were able to string together six hits and score four runs. This made the score 3-5, putting some pressure on the Oakland City offense to come back in this came. One Oakland City run was plated in the bottom half of the third.
An inning later, the Mighty Oaks offense really answered. A lead-off single from
Xander Willis was backed up by an RBI single from
Noah Gilbert. Kirkman also singled, putting runners on first and second. With two outs, back-to-back doubles from
Sam Pinckert and
Garrett Causey put the Mighty Oaks up 8-5.
The lead grew some more in the sixth, after a single from
Noah Baugher and another double from
Sam Pinckert,
Garrett Causey collected two more RBIs with a single to right field. Causey later scored in a single from
Treven Madden.
RBIs from
Alec Pruitt (single),
Xander Willis (single) and
Brandon Skaggs (sacrifice fly) made it a 14-5 ballgame in the bottom of the eight. This ended up being the final score in Wilmore, Kentucky.
Sam Pinckert went 4-for-4 in the game, collecting two RBIs.
Garrett Causey led the team in RBIs with four, he also had three hits.
Treven Madden,
Xander Willis and
Noah Gilbert all had three hits in the first game of the tournament as well. The pitchers for Oakland City were
Hunter Callahan (0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 0 SO),
Christian Burgrabe (W, 7 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO) and
Owen Spears (2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO)
Game 2
A day later, the hosting team, Asbury University was the opponent at 3:00 PM. The winner of this game would move on to the championship round, which takes place tomorrow.
The Mighty Oaks started off hot, plating three runs in the bottom of the first. Back-to-back-to-back doubles to start the game came from
Aron Busick,
Jared Kirkman and
Noah Baugher. This made it a 2-0 game.
Sam Pinckert followed with a walk and
Garrett Causey singled to load the bases.
Alec Pruitt brought home one more with a sacrifice fly.
The Asbury Eagles were able to get back in the game right away, as they scored two in the second inning. This didn't seem to bother the Oakland City hitters however.
Noah Gilbert led off the inning with a double,
Jared Kirkman singled to put runners on first and third before
Noah Baugher brought home the fourth Oakland City run with an RBI single. This wasn't the highlight of the inning, as not much later
Garrett Causey deposited a no-doubt homerun over the left field fence. This put the Mighty Oaks up 7-2.
In the top of the fourth, the Eagles plated one run. Another
Garrett Causey bomb in the bottom of the fourth followed. This made the score now 8-3 after four innings. Asbury would score one more time, in the top of the seventh a balk caused the fourth run to score for the Eagles.
Treven Madden was able to drive in another Oakland City insurance run in the seventh. After
Alec Pruitt walked, his courtesy runner
Mason Simon stole second and scored on a single from Madden.
In the eighth, a couple more runs were added. Three singles in a row came from
Sam Pinckert,
Garrett Causey and
Alec Pruitt. Pruitt collected two RBIs with his base knock.
Noah Gilbert drove in the final Oakland City run with a sacrifice fly, making the score 12-4.
Garrett Causey had himself a day at the plate, going 4-for-5 with two homeruns and four RBIs.
Gehrig Tenhumberg (W, 6.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO),
Tommy Johnson (0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 SO) and
Milan van der Breggen (2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO) split the duties on the mound for Oakland City.
Not only did this win cause the Mighty Oaks to advance to the championship round, it was also the 32
nd win of the season for coach Andy Lasher and his team. This beats the single season win record in program history, which was set at 31 last year.
The first game of the championship round tomorrow is scheduled at 1:00 PM. Kentucky Christian University, who are 2-1 in the tournament, will be the opponent. If Oakland City wins this game, they will advance to the national tournament in Kansas City, Missouri, which starts on May 19. If the Mighty Oaks happen to lose, they will take on the Knights again in a winner-takes-all game later in the day.
