The OKWU Baseball team went on the road for the past five days. They traveled to Jackson, TN to play #16 Union University on Saturday, then to Lyon College in Batesville, AR on Monday and to Clarksville, AR on Tuesday to play NCAA Division III University of the Ozarks. The Eagles ended the trip with a record of 3-2 and overall record of 4-2 respectively.
The Eagles trip got off to a rocky start as they lost their first two games to Union University. In the first game the Eagles made a come back in the top of the 7th only to come up short 5-4 in the contest. In the second game of the double-header Ace and Senior Pitcher Chris Needham took the mound, and did his best to lead the Eagles to victory. The Eagles lost game two as well 4-1.
On Monday, the Eagles Head Coach Kirk Kelley took his team back to a familiar place for him. He led them to Lyon College, where he spent 17 years there as the head coach. Eagles came out and swept Lyon winning both games, 11-9 and 4-0. The Eagles came up with timely hitting in the first game scoring 8 runs in the top of the 4th after being down 5-1 until then. In the second game Junior Pitcher Thomas Kellner (1-0) led the way with an unbelievable pitching performance throwing a complete game shutout. Kellner struck out six, walked one, and only gave up five hits on the day.
On Tuesday, The Eagles added another win on the road by beating University of the Ozarks, 7-2. Senior Shortstop JD Nalder led the way with two hits, scoring two runs and driving in two runs as well. Junior Pitcher Dustin Phelps (1-0) got the win for the Eagles throwing four innings striking out five, walking one, giving up two hits and one run.
Eagles (4-2) get ready for weekend match-ups against Grandview University (IA) and Viterbo University (WI).