ORU SWEEPS NORTHERN COLORADO

The Oral Roberts baseball team closed out the home schedule on Sunday in walk-off fashion, propelling Head Coach Ryan Folmar to first on the program wins list. Folmar surpasses the legendary coach Larry Cochell as the program’s all-time winningest head coach, with 429 wins in 13 seasons at the helm of the Golden Eagles. ORU won game three of the series with Northern Colorado, 8-7, Sunday afternoon at Chapman Park.

For the second straight game, ORU opened up the scoring with two runs in the third inning with back-to-back RBI singles from Cooper Combs and Wailele Kane-Yates. Two innings later, Will Edmunson blasted his fifth homer of the season, a two-run blast to right center, to extend the lead to 4-0.

Northern Colorado got on the board in the top of the sixth with a sacrifice fly, but the Golden Eagles were quick to respond with three more runs in the bottom half.  Senior Dylan Wipperman was called to pinch hit in the frame and roped his first hit of the season into right field, driving in two runs to extend the lead. Later, Combs drove in another with a double to make it a 7-1 game.

UNC got one run back in the eighth inning but then tied the game (7-7) with five runs in the ninth, including a three-run blast by Kai Wagner.

In the bottom of the ninth, with one out, Makani Tanaka smacked his fifth homer of the season over the right center field fence, walking it off for the Golden Eagles and completing the series sweep.

In game two of the series on Saturday, ORU scored four times in the fifth inning to take the lead and defeat Northern Colorado, 7-3.

Cooper Combs reached base three times, including blasting his eighth homer of the season to open the scoring, tying him for the team lead in homers with Jack Schark.

Starting pitcher Nathan Love got off to a hot start, striking out four Bears in the first two innings to continue what has been a great season for the right-hander at Chapman Park. The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the third inning when Combs hit a two-run homer down the left field line, just clearing the short wall into the UNC bullpen to open the scoring.

In the top of the fourth, Northern Colorado would get a two-run homer of their own to tie the game. The Bears took the lead with a single run in the fifth.

In the bottom of the fifth, ORU plated four runs on a two-run triple from Schark and RBI singles from Keaton Campbell and Ethan Fender, giving the Golden Eagles a 6-3 lead. Will Edmunson knocked in a run in the bottom of the eighth to put ORU ahead, 7-3.

On Friday, ORU used back-to-back homers in the fifth inning to take a 4-1 win over Northern Colorado.

Kane-Yates, Wailele Kane-Yates hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning, his seventh of the year, followed by a solo shot by Jack Schark. It was Schark’s team-leading eighth homer of the season.

ORU wraps up the regular season on the road this weekend with a four-game series at South Dakota State. There will be a double header on Thursday at 12:00 p.m., to make up for a previously rained out game, followed by single games Friday and Saturday, both beginning at 1:00 p.m.