Strong Pitching Helps ORU Down Central Arkansas

Oral Roberts topped Central Arkansas 3-1 Tuesday afternoon for its second straight victory.

The Golden Eagles were led by a big performance from redshirt senior Mike Torrence who pitched six and one-third innings, striking out seven batters and allowing three hits and one run on the day.

Central Arkansas plated a run early on in the top of the first when Bryan Wilson singled to right field with two outs to score Forrest Allday.

From there on out it was all ORU. The Golden Eagles tied the game 1-1 in the third on a sacrifice fly by Cam Schiller that plated Nate Goro.

In the bottom of the sixth, Oral Roberts added two more runs. Kevin Cho managed a perfect sacrifice bunt down the first base line to bring Schiller home, then Bennett Pickar tacked on a run with a single to right that scored Brandon Healy.

The Golden Eagles (3-5) managed only seven hits in the game but Torrence's strong pitching helped make up for their offensive shortfall.

Pickar led all batter with two hits and one RBI. Jared Schlehuber also tallied two hits on the day.

Central Arkansas (3-4) got four hits on the afternoon and starter Bryce Biggerstaff (0-1) pitched five and two-thirds innings with seven hits and two earned runs. Willson went 1-3 and accounted for the Bears only RBI.

ORU's Joe Spring came in to relieve Torrence in the seventh inning. He gave up the only other hit to the Bears pitching one and one-third scoreless innings.

Matt Rush came in to the close the game in the ninth for ORU. Rush recorded his tenth career save and first of the season.

Oral Roberts returns to the diamond for a three-game series against Alcorn State starting Friday, March 2 at 3 p.m.