Oral Roberts Wins Wild Game against WIU

Originally Published: Apr 23, 2010 10:15 PM CDT

Andrew Topps
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

TULSA, Oklahoma -- Oral Roberts scored five runs in the bottom of the eighth to rally for an 11-8 victory over Western Illinois Friday.

The Golden Eagles (19-17, 7-2) could not hold on to a 5-1 lead, and found themselves trailing 7-6 with two outs and nobody on in the eighth. Colby Price and Joey Winiecki got things going with back-to-back singles. Tyler Saladino came through with his eighth home run of the season to give ORU a 9-7 lead.

But the Eagles kept going. Nick Baligod reached after being hit by a pitch and Seth Furmanek walked. Tyler Garewal and Jared Schlehuber followed with RBI singles and ORU pushed its advantage to 11-7.

Western Illinois (9-25, 2-7) scored a run in the top of the first, but ORU answered with three of its own in the bottom of the inning. Baligod doubled home Winiecki with one out, to tie the game at 1-1. Furmanek followed Baligod with a two-run homer for a 3-1 Golden Eagles lead.

Baligod added to the lead in the bottom of the third with a double that scored Saladino to make it a 4-1 ORU lead. Chris Elder knocked in Baligod two batters later as the Golden Eagles went up 5-1.

The Leathernecks sliced ORU's lead to 5-2 on Cole Waddell's RBI single in the top of the fifth. In the sixth, the Leathernecks scored four times to take a 6-5 lead. Chris Giglio blasted a two-run homer to pull Western within 5-4, and Dan Dispensa gave the Leathernecks a 6-5 lead on a two-run triple.

Western added another run in the top of the seventh when Giglio knocked in his third run of the game for a 7-5 lead.

ORU cut its deficit to one-run in the bottom of the seventh, but wasted an opportunity to have a bigger inning. The Golden Eagles loaded the bases with nobody out but managed only a Furmanek sacrifice fly, which trimmed the deficit to 7-6.

Sean Johnson (2-1) picked up the win for ORU, allowing one run in two innings. Chris Macek (2-4) took the loss for Western, allowing four runs in 1.2 innings.

ORU and Western Illinois continue their series with a 2 p.m. doubleheader Saturday.