GOODWELL, Okla. - As the season's final weekend got underway for the Mid-America Christian University baseball team, the Evangels knew that their seeding for the upcoming Sooner Athletic Conference tournament would be determined, as well as where they will compete in the Championship. After the opening day of their series at Oklahoma Panhandle State University, the Evangels now know what their seed will be, and they have a good idea which pool they will end up in, though it is not official.
MACU (18-23, 12-13 SAC) split their first two games at OPSU (19-25, 10-16 SAC), and that locked the bottom four seeds in the SAC standings. OPSU won game one 7-2, and MACU bounced back with a 6-2 win in game two.
The first inning of game one was wild. MACU scored two runs - one on a sacrifice fly from Luis Sanchez and one on an error with two outs in the inning - and the Evangels took a 2-0 lead to the bottom of the first. OPSU answered with three runs, taking advantage of a pair of MACU errors to plate three runs - two of them unearned - and the Aggies took the 3-2 lead to the second frame.
The two starting pitchers settled in from there. The next nine half-innings went by scoreless, and the teams combined for only two base runners in the second, third, and fourth innings. Each team had minor scoring chances in the fifth frame, but neither was able to score, and MACU could not take advantage of a one-out single in the top of the sixth frame, and OPSU took a 3-2 lead to the bottom of the sixth.
In the bottom ofthe sixth, OPSU capitalized on three triples as a part of a five hit inning that plated four runs and provided the final margin of 7-2.
Yesiel Valdez (6-4) earned the win for OPSU, allowing two runs on two hits in the complete game victory. He walked three and struck out seven. Ben Donnell (4-6) took the loss, giving up seven runs - five earned - on 10 hits and two walks with one strikeout in six innings.
MACU had only two hits in the game - singles from Oliver Fernandez and Raymond Rodriguez; and Rodriguez, Diego Pichardo, and Leo Bejaran drew walks in the game.
The teams traded runs in the first inning of game two, with MACU scoring on an RBI-single from Rodriguez, and OPSU plating their run on a passed ball with two outs in the inning.
Pichardo scored on a balk in the third inning to give MACU the lead back, and MACU did not trail again. Bejaran and Pichardo picked up RBIs in the top of the fourth frame to stretch MACU's lead to 4-1, and in the fifth, Kevin Lentzner and Manuel Hazoury had back-to-back run scoring hits to push the Evangels edge to 6-1. OPSU scored one in the bottom of the sixth to cap the scoring.
MACU's Arcangel Soto (4-4) earned the win by holding the Aggies to two runs - one earned - on nine hits and one walk in six innings, and he struck out 10 OPSU hitters. Nicholas Virdo (1-5) took the loss, allowing six earned runs on seven hits in four innings of work. He walked four and fanned three.
Lentzner and Hazoury were both 2-for-3 with a run and an RBI, and Yan Ely Adames and Felix Martinez each had doubles in the game. Pichardo, Edgar Martinez, Felix, Martinez, and Sanchez each scored one run as well.
The splt leaves MACU two games behind Wayland Baptist University, and two and one-half games ahead of OPSU, with one game to play, locking the Evangels into the sixth seed in the SAC. WBU has locked up the fifth seed, and barring an unlikely SAGU double-header sweep of NAIA #14 Texas Wesleyan on Saturday, OPSU will be the seventh seed, and SAGU will be the final team into the SAC Tournament field. NAIA #8 USAO needs one win today against Southwestern Christian University or a loss from #9 Oklahoma City University at Wayland Baptist to lock up the SAC regular season title and the #1 seed in the tournament, but with the top four seeds all playing each other, none of those spots has been settled entering the season's final day.
OPSU and MACU will wrap up their regular seasons with a single nine-inning game on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Goodwell.
