Oral Roberts Splits Series With Western Illinois

The Golden Eagles scored five unearned runs to win the series finale.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 12:21 pm

By: News On 6

Oral Roberts Splits Series With Western Illinois

Originally Published: Apr 17, 2011 5:30 PM CDT

Corey DeMoss
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

MACOMB, Ill. – The Oral Roberts baseball team completed its four-game series against Western Illinois with a 5-1 victory Sunday.

Western Illinois (11-24, 3-5) started the scoring in the second inning with an RBI single by Anthony Marcuzzo to take a 1-0 lead. But it was all Golden Eagles (17-13, 6-2) from there.

ORU tied things in the fourth inning thanks to a sacrifice fly by Cam Schiller. He also drove in ORU’s next run in the seventh with a solo home run to give the Golden Eagles their first lead.

They added insurance runs in the eighth, when Nick Baligod delivered an RBI single and then scored on a double by Chris Elder to make it 4-1. Elder then scored an unearned run thanks to a two-out error by Marcuzzo to finish the scoring.

Reliever Laris Liguori (1-1) earned his first win of the season after holding the Leathernecks hitless in his two innings of work. Of the six batters he retired, four were in strikeouts.

Alexander Zarare (1-3) gave up four earned runs in 7.2 innings of work and was credited with a loss for Western Illinois.

The win keeps ORU in second place in the Summit League standings, one half-game behind South Dakota State (19-10, 6-1). The Golden Eagles will return home for their next game against Arkansas at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.