Last year when SSBR was created, one of the first things I did was start a weekly Monday (or Tuesday) series that focused on some things that you may have missed from the previous weekend. It started out as a focus on the small college baseball (non NCAA D1), but as the OSSAA high school season went on, it included some stories from there as well.
It’s time to start the series again with the start of college baseball in the Sooner State this past weekend, so here we go…
1. OCU Stars Sweep LSU-Alexandria
First I’ve got to say kudos to OCU for being forward thinking and moving the weekend series to Piedmont HS so it can be played on a turf field (also shout out to the Piedmont HS for opening up their facility).
What we got was an impressive opening weekend 3 game sweep by the Stars over a Generals team that won 34 games last year and was 1 game away from qualifying for the NAIA National Tournament.
Not only did the Stars win all 3 games, they came back in games 1 & 3 to walk them off. In game 1, the Stars came back from being down 8 runs by scoring 5 in the 6th and 4 in the 7th to walk it off. In Monday’s game 3, OCU scored 2 in the bottom of the 9th to win 4-3.
It is also noteworthy that this same LSU-Alexandria swept the Stars to open the season last year.
2. MACU Splits a Doubleheader With #5 LSU-Shreveport
In 2023, MACU had a 39 win season last year, but still didn’t make the NAIA National Tournament. The quality of wins against top level teams just weren’t there.
In 2024, the Evangels’ schedule has more meat to it as it faces 4 teams ranked in the NAIA preseason poll and 4 more that received votes (3 of the 4 ranked teams are non conference).
The Evangels scheduled a 3 game road series against LSU-Shreveport to start the season, but it was reduced to a doubleheader on Sunday due to weather.
MACU came right out of the gate on Sunday and run ruled the Pilots in 8 innings in game 1 before losing a 1 run game in the night cap.
MACU gets right back to it this weekend with a 4 game series at Houston-Victoria. Houston-Victoria closed the season strong in 2023 and won their conference tournament to qualify for the NAIA National Tournament and they just swept fellow SAC member, Wayland Baptist this weekend.
3. USAO Should Be 3-0
The Drovers traveled to San Antonio to take on Our Lady of the Lake in a 3 game series on Friday and Saturday. USAO took 2 of 3 games against the Saints, but the “L” wasn’t without controversy.
After winning game 1 of the double header on Friday night, the Drovers fell behind 4-1 after 2 innings. USAO scored 3 runs in the 6th before giving up 2 more in the bottom half to trail 6-4 going into the 7th (last inning). This is where the controversy starts. I didn’t see it the actual play, but as I tuned into the live stream, I hear the play by play guy say something about “player interference.”
It turns out that a Drover baserunner was called for runner interference that ended the game. The catch is 1) the call was made by a 4th umpire that wasn’t on the assignment sheet and 2) the ball made it to the fence. How does a ball that hits a baserunner make it at least 350 feet?
Strange stuff happening in San Antonio.
4. Gabriel Arroyo Starts the Season HOT For The Drovers
The Senior from Puerto Rico is one of the top returning players for USAO this season and he showed why this weekend.
In the 3 game series, Arroyo slashed .583/.643/.917 (7-12) with 2 doubles, a triple, 5 RBIs, with 2 walks.
5. Migl and Leu Start HOT For The Vikings
The team results may not have been good for Carl Albert State this weekend, but 2 of their players, Trey Migl and Barrick Reu, had themselves a great weekend at the plate.
Migl is a sophomore from Piedmont HS. The CF’er went 5-9 with 2 doubles, a triple, 3 RBIs and 2 BB.
Leu is a sophomore from Bixby and in game 3 of the weekend, he went 4-4 with 2 – 2 run HRs, 4 RBI, BB, and 3 runs. For the weekend he batted 6-13, and had 5 runs scored.
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