OKLAHOMA CITY – No. 13 MACU Baseball pulled away with a 12-1 victory completing the sweep in the first week of SAC play behind a stellar outing by Fabian Hernandez who tossed six innings of shutout ball while striking out 11.
 
SCORE

• Mid-America Christian 12, Ozarks 1
  • Mid-America Chrisitan (13-5)
  • Ozarks (5-6)

PITCHING DECISION

• Win: Fabian Hernandez (3-1)
• Loss: Ty Thatcher (0-1)

TOP PERFORMERS

• Fabian Hernandez – W, 6 IP, 0 R, 4 H, 11 SO, 0 BB
• Carlos Medina – 4-5, 2 RBI
• Cristopher Munoz – 2-4, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB
• Payton Matthews – 1-3, 2B, 3 R, 3 RBI, 2 BB, 1 SB
• Taiga Sakuma – 2-6, HR, 1 R, 2 RBI

SCORING SUMMARY

• TOP 1^st – MACU – Cristopher Munoz homered to right-center – MACU 1, COFO 0
• TOP 5^th – MACU – Taiga Sakuma homered to right field – MACU 2, COFO 0
• TOP 5^th – MACU – Payton Matthews doubled to right center, 3 RBI; D'Andre Gaines scored; Noel McGarry-Doyle scored; Cristopher Munoz scored – MACU 5, COFO 0
• TOP 5^th – MACU – Carlos Medina singled to left field, RBI; Payton Matthews scored – MACU 6, COFO 0
• TOP 7^th – MACU – Giordany Mendoza singled to left center, RBI; Payton Matthews scored – MACU 7, COFO 0
• TOP 9^th – MACU – Carlos Medina singled down the left-field line, RBI; Jonluke Hobdy scored – MACU 8, COFO 0
• TOP 9^th – MACU – Guillermo Velasco singled through the right-side RBI; Payton Matthews scored – MACU 9, COFO 0
• TOP 9^th – MACU – Zachary Stark reached first on a dropped fly by rf, sacrifice fly, RBI; Alek Guzman scored – MACU 10, COFO 0
• TOP 9^th – MACU – Taiga Sakuma singled to second base, RBI; Giordany Mendoza scored – MACU 11, COFO 0
• TOP 9^th – MACU – Noel McGarry-Doyle reached on a fielder's choice to first base, RBI; Elijah Lee scored – MACU 12, COFO 0
• BOT 9^th – COFO – Kyle Beeman singled through the left side, RBI; Broden Mabe scored – MACU 12, COFO 1

GAME NOTES

• Mid-America Christian outhit College of the Ozarks 15-5 while putting twelve across to just one from the Bobcats.
• The Evangels came out the gates with a run two batters into the contest on Cristopher Munoz's solo-blast to right-center providing the early 1-0 lead.
• Fabian Hernandez settled in retiring eight straight including six-consecutive strikeouts to hold the 1-0 advantage.
• COFO threatened in the bottom the fourth, reaching base on back-to-back Evangel errors, however Hernandez escaped the inning with his ninth strikeout of the day catching Cadan Kauffman looking.
• In the top of the fifth Taiga Sakuma led it off with a solo-homer to right pushing the MACU lead to 2-0. The momentum would not stop though, Munoz and Noel McGarry-Doyle followed up with singles making it first and third with nobody out. D'Andre Gaines walked to load the bases and Payton Matthews cleared the bases on a double off the right-field fence making it 5-0 MACU.
• Carlos Medina pushed another across in the fifth following up the Matthews double with a line drive single over the third basemen's head extending the lead to 6-0.
• MACU added another in the seventh, Matthews walked and stole second and ended up scoring on a two-out RBI single to left-center by Giordany Mendoza.
• Andrew Long entered in relief for the Evangels, he worked a 1-2-3 seventh picking up a strikeout in the process.
• Angel Miranda checked in the game in the bottom of the eighth for MACU and worked a 1-2-3 frame that included a strikeout allowing MACU to take a 7-0 lead into the ninth.
• Jonluke Hobdy led off the ninth with a pinch-hit single on a grounder through the left side, Matthews then walked, and Medina pieced an RBI single down the left field line. With first and second nobody out, Guillermo Velasco was called upon off the bench and came through with a single through the right-side scoring Matthews extending the lead to 9-0.
• The Evangels plated three more in the inning of a dropped sac fly off the bat of Zachary Stark, an RBI single by Sakuma and a fielder's choice of the bat of McGarry-Doyle.
• Ozarks scrapped together a run in the bottom of the ninth, but it was far from enough, as Carlos Escobosa struck out Lance Strahan to close it off with a 12-1 win.
• It was a great game on both sides of the ball for the Evangels, they crushed 15 hits while punching out 17 Bobcats batters.
• The 17 strikeouts in a game were the most the staff has recorded in nearly three years, dating back to Frensly Leito's 17 K performance over OPSU on Mar. 4, 2022.
• Fabian Hernandez was fantastic, he had a season-high of 11 strikeouts, he allowed just four hits and walked none.
• Andrew Long, Angel Miranda, and Carlos Escobosa combined for three innings, allowing one hit, a run and a walk while fanning six.
• Carlos Medina led the day in hits, he went 4-for-5 with a pair of RBIs.
• Payton Matthews added on three runs batted in, he totaled seven in the series and recorded at least two in all three games played. He finished 1-for-3 today with three runs as well.
• Cristopher Munoz and Taiga Sakuma both finished with two hits on a single and a solo-shot, Sakuma added on another RBI later in the contest to finish with two on the day.
• Noel McGarry-Doyle continued to swing a hot stick, he extended his hitting streak to eight consecutive games finishing 2-for-6 with an RBI, run and stolen base.
• Jonluke Hodby, Giordany Mendoza, and Guillermo Velasco all finished 1-for-1, Mendoza and Velasco contributed for an RBI each.
• With the victory MACU extends its winning streak to eight, including a now lifetime record of 3-1 over COFO dating back to 2022.

UP NEXT

• MACU returns home Friday Feb. 28, with a three-game series against Central Christian taking place on the MACU Baseball Field with a first pitch slated for 4:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.