SWING, SWAT & SWEEP: OKWU opens diamond season with thunder
Now, this is the way to start a baseball season.
Back-to-back shutouts, a total of 34 runs scored and 3-0 record.
Needless to say the Oklahoma Wesleyan University Eagles could not have written a better Act I to the season, as they took on Ecclesia College at Bill Doenges Memorial Stadium.
To no one’s surprise, Kellen Brothers (Gridley, Calif.) drew the opening day pitching start and responded with four sparkling shutout innings, giving up two hits, walking one and whiffing three.
In Game 2, OKWU blew away their Arkansas visitor, 14-0. In the series finale, OKWU muscled out a 10-5 win.
Next up, OKWU is slated to play host next weekend (Friday and Saturday) to Hannibal-LaGrange (Mo.).
The Eagles are coached by Kirk Kelley, who is in his seventh season as the team’s skipper. He guided the 2021 team to the NAIA World Series.
Following are summaries from last weekend.
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OKWU 10, ECCESIA 0
Brothers is back for his third season with the Eagles and coming off two superior campaigns. This year could be his best.
He did throw a lot of pitches (55) for four innings — but 39 of them were strikes.
The Eagle offense combined power, speed and a ball-blasting display from the middle of the bottom of the order.
Eight-hole hitter Aaron Gerdes finished a triple shy of hitting for the cycle — he belted a homer and a double, two singles, scored three times and plated four runs.
Seven-hole slugger Nicholas Chavez added a homer and two RBIs.
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OKWU 14, ECCLESIA 0
A seven-run first inning set the stage.
Meanwhile, Eagle starting pitcher Evan Foor clocked in with a shark-ish first game effort — four innings with only 42 pitches (25 strikes), two hits allowed, one walk and three strikeouts.
On the offensive side, eight different players contributed RBIs — including Drenis Ozuna, who turned in a monstrous season back in 2019 (.437, 13 doubles, 22 homers, 78 RBIs, .844 slugging percentage and 37 walks, but didn’t play in the 2020, 2021 or 2022 seasons. In this game, he singled and drove in two runs while batting in the two-hole.
josh Logan, Jordyn Smith, Jesus Rojas and Marcus Randall each homered.
OKWU’s massive first-inning script began with some drama — the first two batters grounded out. Three-hole hitter A’Darius Council then drew a walk — an innocent way to start a seven-run explosion.
Logan came up next and also walked to set the state for Smith. He crushed a homer to bring home the first three runs.
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OKWU 10, ECCLESIA 5
For the third-straight game, OKWU enjoyed a great starting pitching outing, this time by M. Mendoza. He worked four innings, gave up one run, allowed a walk and fanned six batters.
The offense delivered with the determination of a pizza driver trying to make up lost time from a traffic jam.
For the third-straight game the Eagles produced multiple homers (one each by Ozuna and Manon) and a double (Council). Smith ripped the team’s first triple of the season.
Ozuna and Noah Adams drove in three and two runs, respectively.
Gerdes, Logan, Smith, Adams and Manon each lashed two hits.
This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Oklahoma Wesleyan University baseball off to strong start
