Clarksville, Ark.--East Texas Baptist University completed a sweep of the Eagles on Saturday with a 10-9 victory.
With the loss, Ozarks drops down to sixth-place in the ASC East division with 12 games remaining. Facing a 9-3 deficit after six innings, the Eagles scored four runs in the top of the seventh to cut the lead to 9-7. Todd Koch and Tyler Gideon each had two RBI to give Ozarks their runs. ETBU would come back in the eighth inning to score an important run. Going into the ninth inning, ETBU led 10-7, but Ozarks would score two runs to nearly pull out the comeback. Koch homered to make the score 10-8. Caleb Hilton singled in Gideon to add one more run. But ETBU closed out the game with a lineout to the short stop.The Eagles out hit the Tigers 17-11. "We had guys in scoring position in each game, but we just couldn’t come up with the big hit," said head coach Jimmy Clark. "We played hard and came back from a big deficit in the third game, so the effort was there and I thought we played good, but just not quite good enough. Hopefully, we will be ready to play our upcoming home series with UT-Dallas." Anthony Brandon, Koch and Gideon each collected three hits apiece. Koch had four RBI. Curt Dixon (4-1) received the loss. At the mid-way point of conference play, the Eagles continue to be one of the top hitting teams in the league. Koch leads the team in batting (.430) and Brandon is the team-leader in RBI (26). Hilton leads the team in stolen bases (11). Pitcher Jedd Kirby leads the squad in strikeouts (24). "We’ve hit the ball real well up and down the lineup throughout the season," said Clark. "However, I’m disappointed in our defensive play." Ozarks will host UT-Dallas this weekend in what is one of the biggest three-game conference series for the baseball program in some time. Friday’s nine-inning contest begins at 2:00 p.m. Saturday’s double-header starts at 12:00 p.m. The Eagles travel to Point Lookout, Missouri, on March 29 to face College of the Ozarks in non-conference action.
Topics: Athletics