SWOSU Baseball took the series against OBU this past weekend, winning two of the three games and celebrating senior weekend.
The Dawgs won the first game of the series in a tight game of 6-5. It stayed a 2-2 game until the 6th inning. Markus Coronado was able to light the inning up with an RBI double off the left field wall to score Campbell Sullivan, who led the inning off with a walk. This started a rally for the Bulldogs, who then went to score three more runs, putting them ahead 6-2 going into the 7th inning.
SWOSU held steady with this lead until the 8th inning, where OBU finally got hits to fall. They were only able to scratch two runs before Jackson Blue shut it down. He gave up three hits this inning, and two they were able to score on. He then went on to strike out two OBU batters and then a groundout to end the inning.
The Bulldogs didn’t score again in the bottom of the 8th and just needed three outs to end the game. Blue gave up three singles, which gave OBU another run, and then he gave up a walk, and now OBU found themselves with bases loaded, one out, and in the top of the 9th. Tensions were running high, and you could tell the players on the field wanted this win, they were going to find a way to keep a runner from scoring. Jackson Blue had this batter in a 2-2 count, and the pitch was delivered, and it was a swing and a miss from the OBU batter. But the play was not over, Eric Foufoulas was catching and noticed the runner at first was not looking, and went for a back pick, and he was out. It was a ‘strike them out-throw them out’ to end the game. This is a rare play, but it happens, and it gave SWOSU the win. The dugout went crazy for their pitcher and catcher, it was the best thing that could happen in that situation.
SWOSU lost the second game of the series 16-6. Not much to say other than they just got out hit. OBU jumped out hard and got an 11-1 lead by the third inning. It’s hard to come back from that.
The third game of the series, the Dawgs had something to prove after the hard loss. It was senior day as well, the last home conference game these seniors will play. Emotions were running high as all the players wanted to leave this field on a high note. OBU wanted to destroy their senior day and came out in the first inning and scored two runs. This did not impact the Dawgs as they took matters into their own hands and scored 8 runs off 8 eights. Ty Eastwood also cranked his first home run of the season this inning.
SWOSU kept OBU at bay until the 6th inning, where the Tigers were able to get three runs across home. This meant nothing at the time though, because the Dawgs had not stopped hitting. They scratched a couple of single-run innings to bring the final score to 15-5 and ended the game early. The emotions were clear on the field as they lined up for one last time. They were happy for the win, but clear sadness as the 19 seniors stepped off their home field for the last time.
They will now travel to Henderson State next weekend to continue conference play and hope to bring home another victory.
