EDMOND, Okla. – The Mid-America Christian baseball team had a rocky start in its home-away-from-home game at Wendell Simmons Field on the campus of Central Oklahoma, but the Evangels were able to rally from an early 5-0 deficit to defeat Doane 15-5 on Monday.
The game was moved to UCO due to hazardous field conditions at James Curtis Field due to rain over the weekend, but it didn't slow down the Evangels bats. Mid-America Christian (21-8) scored its 15 runs on 10 hits and drew an impressive season-high 13 walks. Meanwhile, Doane (6-7) scored its five runs on nine hits.
The Tigers started the game with all of the momentum, as DU's Bob Mercier hit a two-run homer in the top of the first and a Brett Meyer solo shot in the second allowed Doane to take the early 3-0 lead.
Doane added one in the third and one in the fourth to expand its lead to 5-0 through three-and-half innings.
MACU was finally able to break through in the bottom of the fourth on an Edgar Martinez infield single, scoring Joshua Fernandez from third to cut the deficit to four.
The Evangels swung the momentum completely in their favor with a five-run fifth inning. With the bases loaded, Grant Roberts ignited the offense with a sac fly to left to score Jaily Paredes, trimming the deficit to 5-2.
Two batters later with the bases loaded and two outs, Leonel Bejaran-Specht hit a shallow flyball to left that was dropped by the Doane left fielder trying to make a running catch as MACU pushed two more across on the error to bring the score to 5-4.
Edgar Martinez tied the game up with an infield single once again and Bejaran-Specht came around to score on yet another Tigers error to grab the 6-5 lead.
MACU poured it on in the sixth inning by putting together a seven-run frame. Roberts once again jumpstarted the bats with a two-RBI double to right-center to score Colin Miner and Andres Gonzalez to push the edge out to 8-5.
After loading the bases yet again, Edgar Martinez drove in his third RBI of the afternoon with a sacrifice fly to right to score Roberts. MACU continued to take advantage of bases loaded opportunities as Felix Martinez and Jaily Paredes each drove in a run by drawing back-to-back walks to bring the score to 11-5.
The Evangels kept adding to the score by taking advantage of two wild pitches by DU reliever Patrick Mortensen as Joe Martinez and Felix Martinez each rushed in from third to extend the advantage to 13-5.
MACU finally ended it in the bottom of the seventh. With the bases loaded and one out, Felix Martinez drove a two-RBI single up the middle to plate Bejaran-Specht and Edgar Martinez to close out the 15-5 victory.
Edgar Martinez led the MACU bats, slashing 3-for-4 with three RBIs and a run. Felix Martinez also drove in three on a 1-for-5 performance while Roberts batted 1-for-3 with three RBIs. Bejaran-Specht and Fernandez also each scored three times to lead the MACU baserunners.
While Frank Souza labored, giving up five runs, four earned on six hits, a walk and four strikeouts in 3.1 innings, junior Pedro Reyes came in relief and was able to calm the storm. Reyes tossed 3.2 strong innings out of the pen, allowing no runs on three hits with three walks and six strikeouts to pick up his fourth win of the season.
With the victory, the Evangels improved to 7-0 in the month of March, building upon the program's fantastic February where MACU won 13 games for the winningest month in the program since moving up to the NAIA level in 2008.
Mid-America Christian will return to Sooner Athletic Conference play this weekend as the Evangels will head to Texas Wesleyan for a three-game series. MACU will open the slate with a single game on Friday, Mar. 13 at 2 p.m. before closing out the series on Saturday with a 1 p.m. doubleheader.
