OKLAHOMA CITY – After weather forced the postponement and relocation of the opening game of their weekend series, the Mid-America Christian University baseball team suddenly found themselves with another three game weekend series at James Curtis Field. On Friday afternoon, the Evangels took full advantage.
MACU (12-23, 6-10 SAC) pounded out 15 hits including 10 extra-base knocks, as the Evangels battered the Bacone College Warriors (10-21, 5-11 SAC) 16-3 in seven innings.
Felix Martinez and Logan Gipson each had RBI hits in the bottom of the first frame, with Gipson ripping his 16th double of the season to inch closer to a MACU season record. After the second inning went by scoreless, the Evangels kicked the offense into high gear in the third.
Diego Pichardo led off the inning with a triple that landed right on the line in right field, and Martinez followed that up with a double to push MACU's lead to 3-0. Luis Sanchez then belted his sixth home run of the season, and the inning marked the first of four straight frames in which the Evangels scored at least three runs. Sanchez lofted a sacrifice fly in the fourth to score Pichardo, and Gipson followed with his second home run of the year, and suddenly, with four innings in the books, MACU found themselves staked to an 8-0 lead.
Pichardo and Martinez belted back-to-back triples in the fifth, each knocking in runs, and Martinez scored on a throwing error as the Evangels took a 12-0 lead. The Warriors plated a run off Keisy Portorreal in the top of the sixth, but MACU added four more runs in the bottom of the frame as Pichardo launched a 3-run homer and Sanchez hit his second sac fly of the game to put MACU on top 16-1. Bacone did manage two runs on four hits off reliever Bernardo Moreno in the top of the seventh, but Alexander Flores was able to squelch the rally, and MACU took the win, 16-3.
Portorreal (8-2) continued to stretch his record for single season victories, allowing one earned run on three hits and four walks with 10 strikeouts. Jalen Nakai (0-7) lasted three and one-third innings and gave up seven earned runs on eight hits and two walks with only one strikeout.
Martinez and Pichardo each had four hits in the game. Martinez doubled twice and tripled, he drove in three runs and scored five to tie a MACU single-game record that was originally set by Scott Mulhearn on April 27, 2010 against Ozark Christian College. Pichardo had two triples and a homer with four runs scored and five RBIs. Sanchez added a pair of hits, a home run, and four RBIs; and Gipson homered and doubled with three RBIs. Raymond Rodriguez singled twice and scored a pair of runs, and Dorado singled and scored three runs.
The teams will wrap up their three game weekend set on Saturday afternoon with a double-header that starts at 1 p.m.
