East OKC News

There were two great pitching performances and two comebacks for Oklahoma Baptist on Saturday during the Emporia State Classic. The Bison defeated Minnesota Duluth 4-2 before falling in extra innings to Washburn, 3-2.
 
GAME ONE
 
Against the Bulldogs, starting pitcher Kayleigh Jones went the distance, tossing seven frames, fanning 14 batters, and only giving up one hit. The first 12 batters Jones faced resulted in 10 strikeouts, a groundout and a pop-out.  
 
In other dugout, UMD's Lauren Dixon had some solid results too. While she gave up a couple doubles to the Bison, Dixon kept OBU scoreless through four. She had four strikeouts, a few groundouts and induced a double play.
 
Fifth-inning action finally brought some changes to the scoreboard. Duluth got its first three batters on the base paths. What followed was a failed pick-off to first base which scored Corrie Weise and Nicole Schmitt.
 
Down 2-0, OBU rallied. Like Duluth did a half-inning before, the green and gold put their first three batters aboard. Then, a Sammie Greene fielder's choice scored Gwyn Miller. In the very next at-bat, Emily Adler took a 1-1 pitch to left and pushed Green and Alleyna Rushing home.
 
OBU added one more run in the sixth while Jones closed the final two frames with a pair of strikeouts, two pop-outs and a double-play turned by Adler at short.
 
GAME TWO
 
With MIAA rules in place, a bottom of the eighth error, with a runner placed in scoring position to start the inning, allowed Washburn to defeat OBU 3-2.
 
Before that though, Bison pitcher Aspen Younce and Ichabods hurler Jaycee Ginter were going toe-to-toe.
 
Before the seventh inning, there were only two runs scored. Those came to the hosts in the second. Autymn Schreiner and Jaden LaBarge had RBI triples and doubles, respectively, to break the scoreless tie.
 
After that, Younce turned up the heat on Washburn's bats. From the third through the seventh frames, she gave up just three hits, struck out seven and got a few fly-ball outs.
 
For the OBU offense, its efforts against Ginter, a player who came into the weekend with 62 strikeouts, ranked second nationally behind Jones, got off to a good start.
 
In the first frame, Adi Reese and E. Adler each collected hits off Ginter, but OBU ended up not scoring. Then in the third and fourth innings, Samantha Campos and Sydney Adler tallied base hits to no avail.
 
Finally, as they have done a few times already this year, the Bison would break through and tie the game at 2-2 in the seventh. Morgan Max and Kennedy Clark each delivered two-out RBI hits to tie the game. Campos and Aileen Avelar provided those runs for the Bison.
 
In the next half-inning, Younce retired the side with strikeouts.
 
Then in the eighth, OBU aimed to take the lead. With Avelar on second, back-to-back sac bunt attempts ended in strikeouts before a fly-out from Reagan Ford brought Washburn back up.
 
Paige Robbins' lead-off sac bunt to third ended with a throwing error that eventually scored Jenna Moore.

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