Injured Pitching Staff Comes up Short for Golden Eagles

Oral Roberts had five different pitchers that had to deal win injures this season, which cost them again against North Carolina.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 11:47 am

By: News On 6

Originally Published: Jun 6, 2010 6:0 PM CDT

More Norman Regional baseball coverage from Oklahoma Sports
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- Oklahoma Tops North Carolina in Dramatic Fashion
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Gerald Goodridge
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

NORMAN, Oklahoma -- Pitching has been problematic for Oral Roberts this season. Going into the elimination game with North Carolina, the ORU team ERA was 5.98 after giving up 341 earned runs in the season.

Against North Carolina, the Golden Eagles’ pitching staff gave up 11.

“Today was one of those days where the pitchers could have picked us up and kept the game close,” said Oral Roberts head coach Rob Walton. “It’s probably asking a lot of your offense to continue to score eight to 10 [runs] per game.”

Jeff Burleson – who was 8-4 on the year in his nine starts and 23 appearances – had control issues early on due to an elbow injury. In spite of that, the senior right-handed pitcher held North Carolina scoreless through three innings. He walked five of the 16 batters he faced and gave up two earned runs before being pulled in the top of the fourth without registering a single out.

“He doesn’t have trouble command wise, but he had it today because he lost some feeling in his fingers so he couldn’t hang on to the ball,” said Walton. “If he was on I think we’re good to go.”

Oral Roberts had five different pitchers deal with injury problems this season, including Burleson, but his teammates aren’t willing to use that as an excuse.

“I’ve never experienced anything like that,” said senior designated hitter Seth Furmanek. “It’s tough to deal with that, but we’ve got to go out there and try to do our jobs. We’ve got to hit, got to pitch and got to play defense.

The offense has answered the call all season when the pitching staff was unable to keep opposing offenses in check. The Golden Eagles scored 703 runs, including a school-record 105 home runs.

“It’s tough when you have a guy on the mound that’s hurting,” said Furmanek – who hit 25 home runs for ORU this season. “We can’t let that effect us. We score a lot of runs, we just had to go out there and do our jobs.”

After a record-setting season and a 13th consecutive conference championship the Golden Eagles players are walking away with their heads held high, despite the disappointing finish.

“I’m just proud of all of my teammates,” said senior first baseman and captain P.J. Sequeira. “I don’t feel any bitterness or anything. I love each one of the guys, they all worked hard.”