OBU Sports
Casady Fletcher, Assistant Director of Athletics Communications
SHAWNEE – Jinny Parra set a new Oklahoma Baptist record for career wins with his 36th victory Saturday afternoon as the Bison split a pair of games with Southwestern Oklahoma State.
OBU won the first Great American Conference game 6-5 before dropping the final meeting of the series 5-6 at Bison Field at Ford Park.
Parra, a senior from Jacagua Medio, Dominican Republic, broke a program record that was established in 1989. He passed Darrin Fowler and David Hocking, who each own a 35-13 career record.
“I’m happy for Jinny. If the record was going to be broken, I’m glad that a pitcher with Jinny’s work ethic and commitment did it,” said head coach Bobby Cox.
Southwestern opened up a 3-0 lead in the opener before Kevin Olmeda singled home Brett Berghammer in the third inning for the first Bison run.
Trailing 4-1, OBU scored five runs in the fourth to take the lead for good. Dustyn Cook opened up the scoring with a two RBI double. Berghammer grounded out to score a run and tie the game, and Zane Gelphman singled home Olmeda for the go-ahead run.
Cook picked up his third RBI of the game on a single in the seventh.
Parra faced his toughest test of the afternoon in the eighth inning after SWOSU loaded up the bases with no outs. He forced two ground outs and a strike out to escape the inning with just one run allowed. Parra allowed three earned runs while striking out nine in the victory to improve to 6-3 on the season.
AJ Merkel pitched a flawless ninth and struck out two batters for his first save of the season.
The Bison got two hits each from Cook and Gelphman.
OBU struck first in game two on a sacrifice fly from Olmeda in the first inning of a scheduled seven-inning contest. SWOSU took the lead with a two-run second.
Juan Gonzalez and Nick Burnham put the Bison back on top 3-2 with solo home runs in the fourth.
Cook hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning for his fifth RBI of the day, but the Bison were unable to overcome a four-run sixth from the Bulldogs.
Tyler Gibson took the decision and is now 3-3 on the year. He struck out seven batters and allowed five runs in five innings of work.
Burnham pitched the final two frames, striking out two while allowing one earned run.
Berghammer and Gelphman collected two hits each in the loss.
The Bison are now 23-14 on the season and 14-10 in GAC play. Up next is a home non-conference matchup against USAO on Apr. 11 at 6 p.m.