Oral Roberts Splits Doubleheader with IPFW

ORU followed an exciting but tough loss with a commanding victory.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 12:22 pm

By: News On 6

Oral Roberts Splits Doubleheader with IPFW

Originally Published: Apr 30, 2011 9:52 PM CDT

Oklahoma Sports Staff

TULSA – After a tough loss, at least the Golden Eagles had a chance to avenge it immediately.

Oral Roberts split a pair of games in a double header on Saturday, losing 5-4 in 11 innings to start the day, then responding with a 13-4 victory.

ORU jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first game thanks to RBI singles from Brandon King and Brett Burch, but it didn’t last long.

IPFW scored four runs in the top of the fifth inning to take a 4-2 margin.

Outfielder Joey Winiecki led off the bottom of the inning with a triple, and came home on a groundout from Nick Baligod.

King picked up another RBI in the sixth, leading off the inning with a solo homer to tie the game at 4.

The teams remained knotted until the top of the 11th, when a fielding error from ORU pitcher Matt Rush allowed runners to advance to second and third.

Will Faulkner followed soon after with a sacrifice fly for IPFW, giving the Mastodons the 5-4 victory.

Rush got the loss for Oral Roberts in game one.

Alex Gonzalez put on an impressive performance pitching for the Golden Eagles in game two, striking out a career-high 13 batters.

T.J. Bennett helped ORU out to 3-0 lead in the first inning, but IPFW rallied back with three RBI singles in the third to tie the game.

From there, it was all Golden Eagles, as they scored five in the fifth and five more in the sixth.

Gonzalez threw the entire game, allowing three runs on seven hits.

ORU racked up an impressive 16 hits in the second game.

Oral Roberts (21-17, 10-5 Summit) will wrap up the series against IPFW on Sunday at 1 p.m.