Baseball back on track with win streak, sweeps ECU

By Jared A’Latorre, Sports Editor

The OBU baseball team is on the way to success with five straight victories after dropping six straight games.

The Bison went to Weatherford to take on Southwestern Oklahoma State.

It was a tight game throughout the day, but the Bison got going later. Eric Carlson hit home run to tie the game in the sixth inning.

The Bison took a 4-3 lead after Brett Bloomfield earned an RBI single.

The seventh inning brought more success for the Bison with Kaimama Bartolome bringing in P.J. Harris on a single.

The Bison were also able to score off errors in the seventh inning.

After SWOSU scored in the bottom half of the seventh, the Bison went on a tear in the top eighth inning.

Jake Gozzo and Bartolome homered in the inning to give the Bison a comfortable lead. Joey Pledger would connect on a single to bring his man in, and the Bison were clicking on all cylinders.

The Bison ended the game securing a 16-8 win.

Their next game was against Northeastern State.

The Bison were not to be messed with this time around and got started early with a run off a fly-out.

Harris scored that run to put the Bison on the board. The second inning is when the Bison took off with the bats swinging with confidence.

Harris, Carlson and Bartolome all connected on RBI doubles. Later in the game, Gozzo hit a two-run homer to make the game 10-0.

It was never a contest, with the Bison taking it by a score of 16-0.

Caleb Bly earned the win in a shutout, 16-0. Andrew Eppenbach and Thomas Schroder also saw the mound. Gozzo went two for three on the day including a home run. Bartolome went three of five with a double. Bloomfield went perfect on the bats, four for four.

The Bison went on another avalanche when they went back home to face East Central University.

The Bison got on the board early with Gozzo hitting a two-run homer. They would not let up in the third inning by earning three runs. The Bison kept their bats swinging in the fourth inning. A run was scored off a stolen base by Bartolome.

Garrett McKee would score on a two-run homer.

The only ECU run would be an RBI single.

OBU would add on with RBI singles from Harris and Bloomfield. A.J. Merkel picked up the win.

The next day, OBU hosted the doubleheader against ECU once again.

The Bison were firing in the first inning once again.

The highlights of that first inning were hits from Bartolome and Pledger to extend the lead early to 5-0.

The Bison kept adding on early in the game with a home run from Gozzo. Bartolome connected on a solo home run in the fifth. Harris hit a two-run homer in the sixth.

The game would last seven innings with the Bison taking it, 14-4. Jake Lipetzky picked up his fourth win of the season.

In their second game of the day, the Bison once again got off to a fast start with Carlson hitting a three-run home run.

ECU would answer with six runs in the second inning so the Bison would be forced to step up.

They took the lead in the third with solo home runs from Carlson and Bartolome.

ECU would tie it again, but the Bison would retake the lead off a single from Ramon Enriquez.

The Bison would hold on to secure another 16-8 win. Carlson went four for four in that match.

The Bison are coming off a hot streak and will hope to continue until the end of the season.

The seniors were recognized in the ECU series for their contributions.

They will face South-ern Nazarene next weekend in Bethany.