GOODWELL, Okla. – The Mid-America Christian University baseball team wrapped up its first Sooner Athletic Conference series of the year on Saturday afternoon at Oklahoma Panhandle State University, and while it was not the way the Evangels would have drawn it up, MACU got the job done and took the series from the Aggies.
MACU (10-5, 2-1 SAC) Scored the last eight runs of the game as they came from behind to beat OPSU (5-9, 1-2 SAC) 14-7.
Kevin Lentzner opened the scoring with an RBI single that led directly to two MACU runs in the top of the first, but the Aggies answered with three in the bottom half. Logan Gipson launched his first home run of the season – a 3-run shot – in the top of the second, but again OPSU wrestled the lead back with a three spot in the bottom of the frame. Felix Martinez tied the game in the third with a solo blast, but a MACU error in the bottom of the inning allowed the Aggies to surge back in front 7-6.
From there, though, it was all MACU.
Junior Aracena singled home Antonio Dorado in the top of the fourth, and after Seth Keith hung the first zero of the game in the bottom of the stanza, MACU broke the game open in the fifth. Martinez walked to open the inning, and Lentzner doubled him home as the next batter for his second RBI of the day. Axel Poesmans singled him home, and later in the frame Abdiel Quinones picked up an RBI-double and Aracena lofted a sacrifice fly to cap a 4-run frame that gave MACU the 10-7 lead.
Martinez knocked in Aracena with a base hit in the seventh, Dorado drove in Quinones in the eighth with a single, and Lentzner added his third RBI on a sac fly in the ninth to cap the scoring, as MACU won the game 14-7.
Keith (2-1) allowed four runs – two earned – on seven hits, three walks, and six strikeouts in six innings of relief to earn the win on the bump for the Evangels. Garrison Armstrong (0-2) took the loss for the Aggies, lasting just two-thirds of an inning and yielding three earned runs on two hits and a walk without striking out a batter.
MACU pounded out 17 hits, and they had eight players with multi-hit games. Gipson led the way, posting a 3-for-4 day and finishing a triple shy of the cycle with three runs scored and two walks. Quinones, Lentzner, Aracena, and Luis Sanchez each had a single and a double, Martines homered and singled, and Poesmans had a pair of base knocks. Dorado, Aracena, Martinez, and Raymond Rodriguez each scored twice, Gipson and Lentzner each drove in three runs, and Aracena and Martines each picked up a pair of RBIs.
The Evangels will step out of conference play on Tuesday and head to Winfield, Kansas to take on the Southwestern College Moundbuilders (5-2) in a twin-bill as a part of the Moundbuilders' inaugural season. First pitch of game one is slated for 1 p.m.
