2008 Woodie Awards
No luck for 'Necks in Tulsa
Jon Oakley
Issue date: 4/21/08 Section: Sports
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The 'Necks (10-23, 4-8 Summit League) were overpowered by Oral Roberts (29-8,11-1 Summit) and were outscored 47 runs to 15 in the series, losing 19-2, 11-3, 7-6 and 10-4.
Oral Roberts' offense started out hot, knocking out eight home runs in Game 1 on the way to a 19-2 victory. The Golden Eagles piled it on again in Game 2, spreading 11 runs between five different rallies, pushing them to a second straight blowout.
"What Oral Roberts seems to do better than any team that we've faced is when they go through the order the second time, they make incredible offensive adjustments," said Western coach Stan Hyman. "We handled them the first time through. It was the second time through the order that we really struggled."
Western's offense finally erupted in Game 3 with a six-run comeback to tie the game in the top of the seventh inning, but the Golden Eagles quickly responded with a walk-off home run from junior infielder Kyle Price.
"The guys showed a lot of heart, and I think it would have been very easy with us to roll over with their pitching and being down six nothing," Hyman said. "We had a lot of disciplined at-bats in that last inning. I'm proud of the guys, but I'm not happy. We had four opportunities to score earlier in the game with runners in scoring position, and we couldn't get the two-out hits."
Price, the hero of the night, came in as a defensive replacement in the sixth inning amid the Western rally. He bobbled a groundball that could have ended the game with a double play. Price talked about going from the goat to hitting the game-winning dinger.
"The groundball came at me and I booted it, but I stayed with it and got at least one," Price said. "When I got up, I was just trying to get on base. He left one out over the middle and I got the barrel on it."
Oral Roberts continued its offensive onslaught Sunday, scoring 10 runs in the final game of the series. Game 4 did produce the 'Necks' only lead of the weekend when Western went up 1-0 in the top of the second. The Golden Eagles tied the game in the bottom of the third and retook the lead in the fourth. The 'Necks scored late again, putting one run across in the ninth, but Oral Roberts extinguished the rally and finished the four-game sweep.
Golden Eagles' coach Rob Walton kept his team focused throughout the series, and his offense responded with 47 runs spread across 17 different innings.
"We've got some new guys, and it takes time for guys to get comfortable," Walton said. "The only thing you can do is maintain individual approaches at the plate and make sure they stay focused. Our terminology is 'don't scoreboard watch.' We try to win individual innings at a time and eliminate the scoreboard."
The Leathernecks' next game is at home against Bradley Tuesday, with the first pitch set for 3:30 p.m.
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