Box Score Kansas City, MO – After a 5-0 win in the first game of the NCCAA World Series, Oakland City was scheduled to play No. 1 seed Mid-American Christian University on Saturday. The Mighty Oaks fell just short, despite outhitting the Evangels.
After a quick top of the first, Oakland City was able to take a 2-0 lead in the bottom half of the inning. Lead-off hitter
Aron Busick got on base with a single, he advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from
Jared Kirkman.
Noah Baugher singled, putting runners on first and third. Another base hit followed; this time it was
Sam Pinckert with the RBI single. Another knock, this one from
Garrett Causey, loaded the bases. This gave
Xander Willis the opportunity to bring in the second Mighty Oaks run with a sacrifice fly.
While the Mighty Oaks offense slowed down, the Evangels scored their first run in the third inning. An inning later they tied the game up with a solo homerun.
Oakland City fell behind in the fifth, when a 3-RBI triple from MACU made it a 2-5 ballgame.
The Mighty Oaks did not give in, in the bottom of the sixth, two runs were scored.
Alec Pruitt and
Jared Kirkman both got on base with singles. A triple from
Noah Baugher followed, putting the score at 4-5.
Two innings later, MACU scored two runs of their own, growing their lead. The score stayed at 4-7 going into the bottom of the ninth. Oakland City needed a big inning to stay undefeated in the tournament. A big inning came, but it wasn't big enough.
Sam Pinckert singled,
Garrett Causey walked and
Xander Willis got hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out.
Treven Madden followed with an RBI single, putting the Mighty Oaks within two.
Conner Oxley brought home another run with a sacrifice fly. With the tying run on third and the winning run on first and two outs, a groundout to third base ended the game.
A tough loss for coach Andy Lasher and his team, as they outhit their opponent 15-11. The final score however was 6-7, resulting in a 1-1 record for the Mighty Oaks in the NCCAA World Series. There will not be any games played on Sunday, as the tournament continues on Monday.
In Saturday's matchup,
Noah Baugher saw the ball well again as he collected three hits and two RBIs. On the bump,
Ben Simmons (L, 5 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO),
Owen Spears (2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO),
Hunter Callahan (1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO) and
Evan Price (1 IP, 1 H, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO) saw action for Oakland City.
At 2:30 PM Oakland City University will take on the No. 9 seed Trinity Christian College in an elimination game. Trinity Christian is 2-1 in the tournament, as they dropped their first game to University of Fort Lauderdale, before defeating Toccoa Falls College and Dallas Christian College. The winner of the game between the Mighty Oaks and the Trolls will play again at 6:00 PM on Monday.
