By Jared A’Latorre, Contributing Writer (Courtesy Photo/Bison Athletic)
With the season halfway in the books, the Bison are looking to finish off the second half of the season on a great note.
The Bison are looking to punch their ticket into the postseason with ease, but senior Zane Gelphman believes that he and his team have much more to offer down the stretch.
“As of right now, we are 12-6 and haven’t even come close to reaching our potential. I think that we keep getting better each game and we’re going to be a scary team to face entering postseason,” Gelphman said.
Coming off a rough series against Southern Arkansas, the Bison took the first game of their doubleheader and dominated against the University of Central Oklahoma by a score of 16-1.
Gelphman hit two home runs in that game, but he tried not to get extremely comfortable.
“Confidence is a tricky thing because you cannot let your confidence get too high or low based on your performance. Even though I hit two home runs, there have been plenty of times where the bat hasn’t gone my way and I try to keep my confidence fairly consistent at all times,” Gelphman said.
In that same game, junior Brett Bloomfield hit a home run and a double. The team was firing on all cylinders at the plate, and Bloomfield said that the team had a game plan going into that first game against UCO.
“My mindset was to look away and adjust in and lay off any off-speed until two strikes and it payed off not just for me but for the team,” Bloomfield said.
On finishing off the season, Bloomfield said that he and his guys just need to do what they have already been doing, and that is play baseball.
“The mindset for the rest of the year is to play our way of baseball. To put it simply, no free based, put the ball in play and play catch. Our team plays the best when we stick within ourselves,” Bloomfield said.
Despite the solid play of the Bison this year, Bloomfield also said that one of the challenges of his team is playing up and down in games.
“The big challenge so far has been consistent on both hitting and defense. We show great signs from both aspects of the game but fail to consistently come out game in and game out and deliver the way we want to,” Bloomfield said.
The results of the second doubleheader game proved those same words. OBU fell by a score of 2-11 in that game.
However, last Friday they faced the University of Arkansas at Monticello in a doubleheader and won the first game by a score of 8-7.
Gelphman, along with junior PJ Harris singled in the first inning and junior first baseman Jake Gozzo sacrificed on a fly out to bring in another run to make it a four-run lead in the first inning.
Monticello came roaring back by scoring four unanswered runs to tie it. Gelphman broke the tie on a RBI single to make it five to four.
Monticello came back with a three run homer to take the lead. In the bottom eighth inning, senior catcher Juan Gonzalez was hit by a pitch, and Harris brought in two runs on a single to eventually win in for OBU.
Monticello was able to get back OBU in the second doubleheader game. Monticello took the game six to three.
On Saturday, OBU led a furious rally in the top ninth inning after being down to win it seven to six.
They go back home happy winning the series against Monticello.
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