OKLAHOMA CITY – Brent Weaver earned the save in his first pitching appearance for Oklahoma City University in a 5-4 win over Missouri Baptist on Thursday in the NAIA Mid-South Super Regional at Jim Wade Stadium.
Weaver threw a scoreless ninth inning. B.J. Wheeler scored the game-winning run on a wild pitch in the eighth.
The fifth-ranked Stars improved to 54-10, while No. 24 Missouri Baptist fell to 40-15-1. OCU can clinch a berth in the NAIA World Series and win the best-of-3 super regional in a 7 p.m. contest vs. Missouri Baptist Friday at Jim Wade Stadium.
Weaver, a junior from Midwest City, Okla., had been thrown out at home plate to end the eighth, then he walked the leadoff man in the ninth. Weaver came back to get Scott Schneider to pop out, Clint Massey to strike out and Francisco Vega to fly out to left to end the game.
Weaver made his first pitching appearance in three years.
“My adrenaline was going,” Weaver said. “We knew it would be a tough ballgame. We knew we had to battle. We stepped up to get the win.”
Mike Lee started and went 7.2 innings, striking out 11. Brad Riddle earned the victory to go to 3-1. Riddle retired the final batter of the eighth, striking out Scott Talbert.
Wheeler went 3-for-4 with two runs scored, while David Dennis went 2-for-5 with an RBI.
Missouri Baptist tied the game 4-4 on Lucas Hulsey’s base hit with one out in the eighth. Schneider led off the eighth with a home run to left.
In the bottom of the eighth, Wheeler led off the inning with a double to left, chasing Missouri Baptist starter Matt Murray. Wheeler made it to third on Kirk Walker’s groundout, then scored on a wild pitch.
OCU went up 3-1 in the fifth on David Mann’s RBI groundout. The Stars went up 4-2 in the seventh on Carey Crain’s pinch-hit RBI single to right.
Walker drove in a run in the third to tie the game on a sacrifice fly, and Dennis put OCU ahead 2-1 on a base hit to right.
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