ORU Sports
Scott Slarks, Director of Media Relations
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Oral Roberts baseball team stranded 10 runners on base as it could not break through against the top seed, No. 11 Arkansas in a 3-0 loss Friday night in the NCAA Fayetteville Regional at Baum Stadium.
The Golden Eagles kept a capacity crowd of 11,088 fans in check in a battle of the team’s ace pitchers. ORU’s Miguel Ausua continued his impressive streak shutting down the Razorbacks for the opening four innings. The junior allowed only one earned run over 6.1 innings of work and left to a standing ovation from a great contingent of Golden Eagle fans that made the trip as well as a large group of home fans clad in cardinal.
The offense could not come through with clutch hits being shutout for the first time this season and ended a nine-game win streak, despite putting runners into scoring position in four different frames. The Golden Eagles put together two hits in the ninth getting the tying run to the plate before the home side closed out the contest.
Arkansas broke the deadlock with a run in the bottom of the fifth and tallied insurance runs in the seventh and eighth to advance to the winner’s bracket.
“I thought Miguel was really good,” head coach Ryan Folmar said. “He pitched extremely well and competed well all day long. I thought he was really good. I’m disappointed in the way we played offensively, but we’ve got to regroup in a hurry and come back out here tomorrow morning.”
ORU had a chance to break the game open in the top of the third inning as Trevor McCutchin led the frame turning on a double down the line in right. He moved to third on a sacrifice bunt from Sam Grellner before Cal Hernandez and Matt Whatley drew two-out walks. The Golden Eagles were unable to capitalize as Arkansas ended the threat with a strikeout.
Ausua moved past Dennis Bigley’s scoreless inning streak of 33 from 2005 following a shutout opening inning Friday. The junior had his streak snapped at 36.2 innings on a RBI double in the fifth, a span of six outings, as he gave up eight hits and struck out six suffering only his third loss of the season.
ORU faces in-state rival Oklahoma State in an elimination game Saturday afternoon as the NCAA Baseball Championship continues in Fayetteville. First pitch is slated for 2 p.m. at Baum Stadium on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app.