OKLAHOMA CITY – Keisy Portorreal of the Mid-America Christian University baseball team staked his claim to the "Kid K" moniker on Friday afternoon. The nickname, made famous in the summer of 1998 by a young Kerry Wood, fit the junior right-hander's performance perfectly on Friday as MACU hosted Central Christian College.
Portorreal fanned a MACU single-game record 17 batters in the Evangels (16-9, 7-4 SAC) 8-0 win in game one of their double header against Central Christian College (3-22, 2-8 SAC). The Tigers rallied to win game two 9-4.
Portorreal set the tone early, recording two of the three outs in the first inning via strikeout, and he used three more strikeouts to work through a scoreless second frame. In the third, he struck out four, including one which reached base on a wild pitch, bringing his total to nine strikeouts through three innings of work. He added two more in the fourth, and two in the fifth to bring his total to 13 – marking a new season high. Central Christian loaded the bases with one out in the sixth, but Portorreal struck out the last two men he faced in the frame to bring his game total to 15 strikeouts and set the stage for the record to fall in the seventh. Will wild pinch hit and grounded out to shortstop to open the final inning, but the last two men both fell victim to Portorreal via the strikeout, and he set a new MACU record with 17 strikeouts in the win.
Offensively, MACU got on the board first in the second inning on RBI base hits from Raymond Rodriguez, Axel Poesmans, and Logan Gipson as the Evangels took an early 3-0 lead. Rodriguez drove home a second run in the third inning, and Junior Aracena plated a run on a sacrifice fly in the fourth to push MACU's lead to 5-0. Rodriguez got his third RBI hit of the day in the fifth, and Antonio Dorado added a sacrifice fly as MACU stretched their lead to 7-0 in the fifth; and in the sixth, Felix Martinez homered to cap the scoring as MACU won the game 8-0.
Portorreal (5-2) earned his third shutout of the season, and he allowed only five hits and one walk in the victory. Bryan Scott (0-4) gave up five earned runs on nine hits in four innings, and he was charged with the loss.
Martinez (3-for-3) and Rodriguez (4-for-4) each had perfect afternoons at the plate in the game. Martinez scored three times in the contest, and Rodriguez drove in three. Kevin Lentzner was 2-for-3 with a pair of runs scored, and Dorado was 2-for-2 with a single, a double, and a walk.
Game two got off to a rocky start as MACU starting pitcher Seth Keith struggled to find his command early. The Tigers scored three times in the top of the first, but MACU answered with a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the first. The second inning went by scoreless, but in the third, Central Christian broke the game open.
CCC took advantage of a MACU error to plate four unearned runs as a part of a five run inning to take an 8-2 lead. MACU loaded the bases in the bottom of the frame, but the Evangels were unable to plate any runs, and that began to become a theme through the middle innings. MACU did plate a pair of runs in the fifth frame on an RBI double from Luis Sanchez, but the Evangels stranded two more runners in the frame, and the margin remained at four. MACU again put two runners on with one out in the sixth, and Gipson hit a rocket back through the middle, but it was caught by Central Christian pitcher Landon Stevens who started an inning ending double play, and after a similar start to the seventh, another lineout got Stevens out of the jam, as the Tigers took the win 9-4.
Stevens (1-5) threw 136 pitches in the complete game victory, issuing eight free passes and striking out five MACU hitters. Seth Keith (2-3) took the loss, giving up seven runs – though only four were earned – in two-plus innings of work.
Sanchez was 3-for-3 in the game for the Evangels, with a double, a run, and two RBIs. Dorado singled twice in three trips, and seven different Evangels drew walks in the game.
The teams will wrap up their weekend series on Saturday with a single nine-inning game on Saturday at 1 p.m.
