Golden Eagle Offense Goes Cold In Windy Wichita

The Oral Roberts offense struggled on a cold and windy Tuesday in Wichita as the Shockers of Wichita State shut down the Golden Eagles, 8-1.

ORU drops their record to 5-6 on the season, while the Shockers picked up their first home victory, moving their record to 6-4. The two teams will match up again in Wichita on April 24, making up a game that was postponed due to snow on Feb. 26.

The Golden Eagles return home on Friday evening as they host Dallas Baptist for the first of a three game set at J.L. Johnson Stadium. First pitch of the series is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

Kurt Giller got the start on the mound for the Golden Eagles, giving way after two scoreless innings to the ORU bullpen. A total of ten ORU pitchers were used in the game, with Phillip Wilson (0-1) picking up the loss in his third appearance.

The first four Wichita State runs came in the bottom of the third. Dayne Parker led the inning off with a single through the left side of the infield, advancing to second as Cody Bobbit reached base on an infield single.

Quickly, the bases were loaded full of Shockers as Garrett Bayliff laid down a perfect bunt single.

Cody Gillaspie then grounded to third, but an E5 allowed all the runners to reach safely, scoring Parker. Two batters later, Johnny Coy fly out to left field to score Bayliff, just before Erik Harbutz ripped a double off the bottom of the wall in right to plate Baker and Gillaspie.

In the top of the seventh, the Golden Eagles finally got on the board. Matt Brandy sent a pitch over the center fielder's head to lead the inning off with a double, taking third as Tyler Boss flew out to deep right center. With one out, Brandy crossed the plate on a ground out to third off the bat of Chris Williams.

The run batted in was Williams' ninth of the season.

The Golden Eagles only had two hits on the afternoon. Logan Domenico picked up a one-out single to center in the bottom of the sixth inning, breaking up a no-hitter from A.J. Ladwig who earned his second win of the season.

In the bottom of the inning, the Shockers rattled off three straight hits from Bayliff, Gillaspie and Baker. Bayliff scored on Baker's single.

After Guillermo Trujillo set down Coy swinging, Harbutz singled between first and second to score Gillaspie and Micah Green followed that single with one of his own to left to score Baker, extending the Shocker lead to 7-1.