ARKADELPHIA – The Ouachita Baptist University baseball team split its series-opening doubleheader against Oklahoma Baptist University at home on Friday by winning game one 12-8 and losing in game two 10-3.
Cooper Timmons was one of the stars of game one in earning the win on the mound, which was the 20th of his career. He moves to 5-3 this season and 20-9 for his career at Ouachita, making him just the third Tiger to ever reach 20 career wins. The League City, Texas native now ranks third at Ouachita in career wins behind Davis Ward (2011-14) and Steve Smith (2005-08), who are tied for first with 26 career wins each.
Timmons started Friday's game by tossing five perfect innings before the Bison (22-16, 14-12 GAC) broke up the perfect game and no-hitter bid with a single in the sixth.
Offensively in game one, the Tigers (29-11, 18-8 GAC) collected their 12 runs on 11 hits, marking the 13th time this season to have double-digits in runs and the 21st time to have double-digits in hits.
The Tigers poured it on late in game one with at least one run scored in each of the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth innings, highlighted by a four-run rally in the fifth. That rally included a three-run homerun by
Dustin Bermudez, the first of what ended up being a two-homerun day for him.
Ouachita had six extra base hits in the game one win, including two triples, one of which produced two runs off the bat of
Isaac Nowell.
Wyatt Core led the team with a 3-for-4 performance at the plate.
Michael Quinones and
G. Allen each had two hits.
Jud Arrington managed to collect two RBI in the win without registering a hit. He had a bases-loaded walk and a sacrifice fly.
The Bison rallied for four runs in each of the seventh and ninth innings of game one, which carried over into game two, where they flipped the script and took a 7-0 lead through the first four innings. OKB starter Jake Hamilton mirrored Timmons' game one effort with four perfect innings to start the game before Ouachita broke through with a run on two hits in the fifth. Arrington again produced a run without a hit, getting sac fly in the fifth.
In the sixth, Bermudez hit his second homerun of the day and seventh of the season with a two-run shot to left center to finalize the scoring. That homerun extended his hitting streak to 23 consecutive games.
The rubber match of the series is set for Saturday at 11 a.m. at Rab Rodgers Field.
