Box Score To start the River States Conference tournament in Chillicothe, Ohio the Mighty Oaks faced off against Indiana University Kokomo. An early Oakland City lead disappeared in the later innings, as the Mighty Oaks fell short after nine innings.
Prior to the game, several players for Oakland City were recognized and honored with River States Conference first, second and third team selections.
Thomas King made the RSC first team,
Gehrig Tenhumberg,
Benjamen Simmons,
Oliver Hamilton and
Marcos Arocho made the RSC second team and
Leyton Ivers,
Aron Busick and
Fred Fernandez made the third team. Busick and Fernandez also won Gold Gloves at left field and first base respectively, to award their stellar defense during conference play.
After the ceremony on the field at VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe, Ohio, the game between Oakland City University and Indiana University Kokomo got started. During the regular season, the Mighty Oaks dropped the first two games in extra innings, in game three Oakland City was able to take home a victory.
In the first innings, hits from
Aron Busick,
Noah Baugher,
Oliver Hamilton,
Xander Willis and
Kendric Sorgius got the Mighty Oaks off to a great start. Four runs were able to score on five hits. A quick 3-up-3-down inning followed for
Thomas King, keeping the momentum on the Oaks' side. A pair of walks for
Leyton Ivers and
Noah Baugher were followed by a single from
Fred Fernandez and a double from
Oliver Hamilton. Later on, Fernandez scored on an RBI groundout from
Xander Willis. This helped Oakland City to a 7-0 lead.
The Cougars would score once in the bottom of the second, but in the fourth,
Aron Busick answered with a solo shot to right field. A three-run bottom half of the inning from IU Kokomo followed, making it an 8-4 ballgame after four. Both teams added one run in the following frame, Oakland City's run scored on a deep homerun from
Xander Willis to left field.
In the bottom of the sixth, IU Kokomo scratched two runs across, moving the score to 9-7. An inning later, the game was tied with a 2-run homerun. The Cougars kept the momentum, as they plated more runs in the eighth, giving them a 9-11 lead. The Mighty Oaks could not create any more offense, as they dropped their first game of the tournament.
On the bump,
Thomas King started the game for Oakland City. He pitched 4.1 innings, allowing six runs and five runs, three of which were earned. He walked one and struck out three.
Owen Spears (1.2 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 0 SO) and
Evan Price (L, 2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO) came in out of the bullpen.
Tomorrow at 12:30 PM ET, the Mighty Oaks will face the loser of tonight's game between No. 1 seed Point Park University and No. 8 seed Ohio Christian University.
Update: Point Park beat Ohio Christian, 19-5, Oakland City will face Ohio Christian University.
