Bison baseball sweeps ECU Tigers

By Jared L’Attore, Contributing Writer  (Courtesy photos/Bison Athletics)

OBU baseball is looking to succeed to their advantage by playing four games at home this past week.

Their home stretch began last Tuesday when Arkansas-Fort Smith came to town to play the Bison.

It was a solid start for the Bison with two homers in first and second innings.

Senior Zane Gelphman and junior Garrett McKee were responsible for the two-run homers leading to a four to nothing lead. Unfortunately, there was not much celebrating after that for the Bison. Fort Smith connected on some hits leading to runs later in the game to eventually tie it at four.

The game went into extra innings and Fort Smith put up a clinic in the 10th inning, scoring 10 runs. Fort Smith won the game and scored 14 unanswered runs in the game.

Friday the 13, the Bison began their series and their first of two doubleheader games against East Central University. Once again, it was a solid start for the Bison with a triple for Gelphman. Senior Josh Timms sacrificed on a groundout leading to another score. Senior Matt Poulin and senior Brett Berghammer also joined the hit party in the first inning as well. Poulin hit a double to bring in one run, and Berghammer hit a single to bring in two runs. The Bison scored six runs in that first inning. Gelphman continued with the hot hand in the second inning with a two-run homer. Junior PJ Harris joined in on the fun as well by hitting a solo home run to make it nine to nothing. Later in the fourth, Berghammer hit a triple scoring in two runs. Junior Brett Bloomfield singled scoring in another run. Later in the sixth inning, senior Juan Gonzalez connected on a single that put in another run. The Bison cruised their way to victory, 13-5.

In the second doubleheader game, the Bison answered on a home run by East Central in the bottom first, with Gonzalez bringing in a run on a groundout.

East Central later scored three unanswered runs in the second inning. In the third inning, junior Jake Gozzo tripled but scored on an error making the game tied at four.

East Central answered back in the fourth by scoring a run off a hit to take the lead. In the bottom half of the fourth, Gonzalez hit a three-run homer to take a two-run lead. In the fifth inning, Berghammer doubled and earned an RBI to put some more breathing room on the lead. The hit party was not over for the Bison yet. Gelphman hit a three-run homer in the fifth, and McKee hit a two-run homer in the sixth. The Bison won the game and the doubleheader against East Central.

On a cold and windy Saturday afternoon, the Bison took on East Central again. The Bison struck first on a sacrifice fly out by Timms. In the second inning, Poulin connected on a two-run homer to give the Bison a three to nothing lead. East Central tried to fight back, but they never lead or even tied in the game. In the eighth inning, Gonzalez connected on a single and scored in a run. OBU won the game, four to two. Freshman Celeb Bly earned his fifth win of the season and earned 11 strikeouts in that game as well.

The Bison will have four more games after their East Central series. They will face Southeastern Oklahoma State on the road and then come back home to face Southern Nazarene for Senior Day for next Saturday, April 21. They stay home with a 23-14 record coming off a three-game win streak.