Golden Eagles defeat Wichita State after being swept by St. Thomas

The Oral Roberts University Golden Eagles ended a four-game losing streak Wednesday night, defeating the host Wichita State Shockers 8-3.

The win came on the heels of the Golden Eagles suffering a home series sweep at the hands of St. Thomas, which took last Friday night’s game 3-2 before winning 7-5 Saturday afternoon and 8-2 on Sunday afternoon.

In the win over Wichita State, ORU would strike first in the top of second when former Shocker, David Herring would welcome himself back to Eck Stadium driving in Drew Stahl. The Golden Eagles kept the momentum going, loading the bases and setting the table for Alex Rodgers to launch the first grand slam of his career.

Trent Martin, Cale Issacs, and Dalton Patten combined for 3.2 innings of shutout relief.

In the series-opening loss to St. Thomas, the Golden Eagles (13-23-1 overall, 3-10-1 in Summit League play) were able to establish an early lead, capitalizing on defensive miscues by the Tommies and timely hitting by Cameron LaLiberte to build a 2-0 lead.

However, St. Thomas was able to even the score as a couple of errors committed by ORU allowed two unearned runs to cross the plate in the fifth inning.

The Tommies would later take the lead in eighth and hold off the Golden Eagles.

In Saturday’s loss, the Golden Eagles fell into an early deficit as the Tommies would establish a five-run lead with three being unearned via an error.

ORU would rally a response in the fourth as two sacrifice flies and a bases-loaded walk, cut the deficit to two.

However St. Thomas got insurance for their lead in the ninth inning.

The Tommies were able to establish an early 8-0 lead in Sunday’s series finale before the top of the fourth as the Golden Eagles were in danger of being run-ruled.

However ORU’s bullpen would shut down St. Thomas the rest of the way as Red Oak’s Dalton Patten and Joshua Caravalho combined for six innings of scoreless relief.

A Drew Stahl homer brought ORU within six over the Tommies were able to secure the series sweep.

The Golden Eagles were slated to be back on the road Thursday as they headed up to Fargo, N.D., to take on North Dakota State this weekend.