SHAWNEE, Okla. – With a berth to the Sooner Athletic Conference championship game on the line and a thus giving No. 18 Rogers State a shot at defending its title, the Hillcats watched the No. 8 Oklahoma Baptist Bison capitalize on Cat mistakes to claim a 7-2 victory Friday evening from Bison Field at Ford Park.
RSU committed three errors in the contest and starting pitcher Brandon Bargas walked three batters and OBU posted a four run fifth inning to push ahead to victory.
In the fifth Bargas fanned the first batter faced but walked a pair in top half of the inning. With the bases loaded Mitchell Prophet reached on an error by the Hillcat third baseman Cade McKewon scoring two Bison. The very next at-bat Usiak hit a two RBI double to right field to put the Bison up 5-0.
The Bison posted one run in the fourth inning on a Daniel Baptista single to center plated Dillon Usiak to take a 1-0 lead.
The Diamond Cats first run came in the home half of the sixth on a single to left scoring Taylor Estes from second to cut into the OBU lead, 5-1.
Prophet struck again in the seventh with a single to center scoring Yael Colon and pushing the Bison back in front by five runs at 6-1.
Lance Rymel hit his third single in consecutive at-bats this one scoring Hector Rivera to put RSU down 6-2.
OBU (45-12) scored a run in the top of the ninth but as RSU went to the plate in the home half back-to-back walks gave the Cats a pair of base runners with no outs. A Rymel foul ball to left and a quick throw back to second caught Rivera returning to the base and left OBU one out away from the championship game Saturday. The Bison reliever Jesus Carlos rung up the final batter and gave host OBU the 7-2 victory and a berth in the 1 p.m. championship game tomorrow.
RSU left the bases loaded twice as Steven Messner (8-4) earned the victory as the starter for the Bison. Messner allowed eight hits and two runs, one earned, while striking out eight.
Bargas (6-3) registered the loss allowing five earned runs on 10 hits and fanned nine.
Rymel went 3-for-5 with one RBI and Cody Campbell reached base in all but the ninth inning as the elder brother went 3-for-4 with a walk. The top three of the Hillcat order went 0-for 10 in the loss.
Rogers State (42-14) will wait to learn of its postseason fate with hopes of heading to the NAIA Opening Round.
