Oral Roberts Baseball Wins Again At Southland Tournament

Drew Bowen carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning and added to his storied postseason résumé as third-seeded Oral Roberts knocked off second-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 6-1, on Thursday afternoon at the 2013 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament.

ORU (25-30) is now 2-0 at the double-elimination tournament and will play again on Friday at 4 p.m. CT.

Bowen (4-3) went seven innings and allowed just one run on three hits. He struck out eight batters, a season high, and ran his career postseason record to 5-1.

Logan Domenico and Austen Colt each tallied two hits to pace the Golden Eagles. Six different ORU players scored a run and five different Golden Eagles tallied an RBI.

Trevor Belicek (9-2) took the loss for the Islanders, surrendering four runs (three earned) on eight hits. He struck out three.

The Golden Eagles broke through in the 3rd inning, plating the first three runs of the game. Consecutive two-out singles by Brandon Healy, Domenico and Jose Trevino gave ORU a 3-0 lead.

Bowen nearly allowed his first hit in the 5th inning, but Domenico was there to save the day. A fly ball off the bat of Brad Porras was destined for the left field bleachers, but Domenico scaled the outfield fence, robbing Porras of a home run and keeping the Islanders off the board.

ORU was gifted another fourth run in the 6th inning. Nate Goro led off the frame with a triple but was still standing on 3rd base when Graham McIntyre stepped in with two out. McIntyre rolled an easy grounder to shortstop, but AMCC's Zach Taylor booted the play, allowing Goro to score and stretching the Golden Eagle lead to 4-0.

Bowen lost his no-hitter to the first batter of the 7th inning. Cody Stephens smacked a base hit into left field, ending the senior's run at perfection, and he came around to score on a single by Porras. The run cut ORU's advantage to 4-1.

The Golden Eagles responded by tacking on two runs in their half of the 7th. Colt came through with a run-scoring single, and Joey Migliaccio followed with a sacrifice fly to make the score 6-1.

Kurt Giller entered the game for ORU with two on and nobody out in the 8th inning after Bowen ran out of gas. He held the Islanders at bay in the 8th and pitched a scoreless 9th to finish the game.

ORU will have two opportunities to advance to Saturday's Championship Game. The first of those comes Friday at 4 p.m. CT against either Central Arkansas or Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. If the Golden Eagles lose on Friday, they will get a second crack at a title game berth on Saturday at 9 a.m. CT.