Pineville, La.-Brett Wood pitched five and one-third effective innings to lead Ozarks to a 8-6 win over Louisiana College Thursday, giving the Eagles their fourth straight American Southwest Conference win.
Wood, who was making his first start of the season, improved his record to 3-1 after scattering five hits and striking out two. The Eagles’ offense provided Wood with a 4-1 lead after two innings and then extended it to 7-2 after four. Jeremy Hogan singled in Chris Driedric in the first and the Eagles (10-15, 5-4 ASC) then produced a three-run second inning. Ozarks had five hits in the frame, with Driedric, Cory Briggs and Scott Dietz each providing an RBI. In the fourth, Hogan had an RBI double and Chris Young came up with a big two-run single. Wood kept the Wildcat (9-17, 2-5 ASC) offense quiet throughout the night, but he did run into trouble in the bottom half of the sixth. He issued his only walk of the game in the sixth, which came to leadoff man Cody Laprarie. Laprarie advanced to second on a wild pitch and after getting the next batter to fly out, Wood gave up a Jonathan Ettinger double. The Wildcats generated another run off Wood, but Travis Conner quickly stopped the Wildcat rally by striking out Anthony Beniot and forcing a ground out to end the inning. With the Eagles holding a 7-4 advantage after six, Mitchell Powers singled in a run to increase Ozarks’ lead to 8-4. Louisiana College scratched two runs across the plate in the seventh, but that would be all as Conner retired the side in the eighth. Ace closer Bill Smith preserved the win by pitching a hitless ninth inning. It was his fourth save of the season.
Hogan went 3-for-5 with two RBI. Powers and Dietz each finished 3-for-5 with an RBI.
The series concludes tomorrow with a double-header starting at 12:00 p.m.
Topics: Athletics