Oral Roberts Knocks Off No. 9 Arizona State

The Golden Eagles big fifth inning kept them from being swept by the Sun Devils.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 12:17 pm

By: News On 6

Oral Roberts Knocks Off No. 9 Arizona State

Originally Published: Mar 20, 2011 6:35 PM CDT

Gerald Goodridge
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

TEMPE, Arizona -- The Oral Roberts Golden Eagles avoided a series sweep with a 5-2 win over the Arizona State Sun Devils Sunday.

A big fifth inning is what it took for ORU (8-7) to knock off the No. 9 Sun Devils. After a Cam Schiller led off the inning by reaching on an error, TJ Bennett brought him home with an RBI double. Brett Burch and Spencer Barnett added in RBI singles and Brandon King rounded out the inning with a double off of the right field wall to score two.

The Golden Eagles used eight pitchers to come away with the win, but Tyler Sparks (1-0) earned his first win of the season for his two innings of service. The sophomore from Owasso, Oklahoma gave up just two hits and didn’t allow an earned run.

Arizona State starter Brady Rodgers (2-1) pitched four shutout innings, but gave up four earned runs and six hits in the top of the fifth and was pulled.

ORU will come home for the start of a three-game series Friday against Missouri State, before traveling to Springfield, Missouri for the two closing games.