May 9, 2008
A 10-6 loss at the hands of Texas Wesleyan capped the season for the Oklahoma Baptist University baseball team Friday at Oklahoma City University's Jim Wade Stadium.
The Bison finish with a 44-16 record.
OBU took the early 1-0 lead in the top of the second when courtesy runner Eric Neff scored from first with two outs on a dropped popup in shallow right off the bat of Christian Ruiz.
The Rams tied the game in their half of the inning on an RBI single by Mikey Valdez.
Things looked up for the Bison in the fourth inning. Ruiz doubled home Chris Chambers and Josh Collazo ahead of an RBI single by Keith Johnson to give the Bison a 4-1 edge.
The run by Collazo gave him the single season runs record with 79, eclipsing the 78 scored in 1989 by Jose Olmeda. Collazo's record season also includes single season marks with 22 home runs and 100 RBI. He also came within three hits of the single season record of 93, set by Sal Gomez in 1997.
A controversial call got the Rams a run in the bottom of the fifth when Zach Smith was called safe on a not-very-close play at the plate. Catcher Mason Reilly applied a tag well before the runner reached base as Smith attempted to score on a double by Butch Ballez.
Another call went Texas Wesleyan's way in its five-run sixth. Antoine Cole bunted the ball and his bat hit the live ball in front of home plate. Instead of an out, the home plate umpire ruled that the ball was in foul territory. Cole singled and later scored.
OBU got a run back in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Cooper, but Texas Wesleyan scored twice in the seventh and added an eighth-inning run to take a 10-5 lead.
Johnson belted his sixth home run of the season to start the ninth, but OBU got no other runs in the inning, stranding Cooper at first.
Cooper and Johnson had two hits each for the Bison in OBU's seven-hit offense.
The game was the last college contest for OBU seniors Andrew Dickison, Whitt Barkley, Johnson, Doug Hurn, Adam Garner, Cooper, Frank Avilla, Ruiz, Reilly, Chambers and Jordan McCavitt.