Baseball 5/13/2014 10:17:00 PM

OCU falls to Sterling 3-1

Stars bow out of NAIA Championship Opening Round Jackson Bracket

Chris Pike posted his eighth complete game of the year Tuesday.

Box Score
JACKSON, Miss. – Oklahoma City University completed its season with a 3-1 loss to Sterling (Kan.) on Tuesday at Smith-Willis Stadium in the NAIA Baseball Championship Opening Round Jackson Bracket.
Ryan Wright provided the Stars' run on a home run in the fourth inning. No. 16-ranked Oklahoma City finished at 35-19.
Sterling's Blake Oliver scattered eight OCU hits in a nine-inning complete-game effort. Oliver struck out two and allowed a walk.
Chris Pike fanned eighth in eight innings while allowing three runs on eight hits and a walk. Pike, a senior right-hander from Southampton, N.Y., went to 10-3 for the Stars. Pike notched his eighth complete game of the season while logging 107 pitches.
Ricky Rodriguez' solo homer put Sterling ahead 2-0 in the bottom of the third. Wright answered by crushing a first-pitch homer past the right-field wall leading off the fourth.
OCU's leadoff man reached base each inning in the fifth, sixth and seventh, but were left stranded. Rodriguez hit an RBI triple in the seventh that gave Sterling 3-1 lead.
In the ninth, Austin Murphy nailed a two-out double to right field for OCU. Oliver induced a grounder to Rodriguez at shortstop to finish the game.
Murphy, a junior from Denver, delivered a 3-for-4 performance with a double, while Wright, a junior from Fruitland, Idaho, went 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI for the Stars. Garrett Foster, a freshman from Ardmore, Okla., was 2-for-4, while Jared Baker, a freshman from Edmond, Okla., had OCU's other hit.
Oklahoma City had six seniors on the 2014 team. Over the past four years, OCU went 179-56 with three Sooner Athletic Conference regular-season championships, two NAIA Championship Opening Round titles and two trips to the NAIA World Series.
Pike completed his season with 125 strikeouts and 10 wins to rank among the NAIA leaders in both categories. Pike became a two-time Sooner Athletic Conference pitcher of the week and Collegiate Baseball player of the week when he pitched 17 hitless innings in a perfect game and a no-hitter in back-to-back starts on March 7 and 14. Pike boasted of a 1.89 earned run average and two shutouts in 90.2 innings pitched while making first-team all-SAC this year.
Forrest Smith, a first baseman from Bakersfield, Calif., put up an NAIA-high 18 home runs and ranked among the national leaders in slugging percentage (.753) and RBIs (55). Smith was a two-time all-conference choice, CoSIDA academic all-district and SAC player of the week twice. Smith's career numbers are a .322 average, 105 hits, 23 doubles, two triples, 29 homers and 100 RBIs.
Josh Dickey, an outfielder from Bakersfield, Calif., had 38 hits, eight doubles, a triple, six home runs and 32 RBIs as a Star.
Shane Henderson, a right-handed pitcher from Flower Mound, Texas, provided OCU with a 9-3 record, 2.56 ERA and 101 strikeouts in 88 innings. He was SAC pitcher of the week last year.
Matt Marsh, a right-handed pitcher from Oceanport, N.J., earned a save in his OCU debut in a win against Roosevelt (Ill.) on March 10. Marsh posted a 1-0 record, 4.08 ERA and 17 strikeouts in 17.2 innings this year.
Randy Vann, an outfielder from Mustang, Okla., had been a valuable contributor to the Stars and hit his first collegiate home run vs. Roosevelt on March 10.

NAIA Championship Opening Round
Jackson Bracket
At Jackson, Miss.
Smith-Willis Stadium
Monday's Results
Houston-Victoria 5, Sterling (Kan.) 2
Belhaven (Miss.) 9, Oklahoma City 8
Oklahoma Wesleyan 5, Houston-Victoria 3
Tuesday's Results
Game 4: Sterling 3, Oklahoma City 1, Oklahoma City eliminated
Game 5: Oklahoma Wesleyan 4, Belhaven 2
Game 6: Houston-Victoria 3, Sterling 2, Sterling eliminated
Wednesday's Games
Game 7: Belhaven vs. Houston-Victoria, 2:30 p.m.
Game 8: Oklahoma Wesleyan vs. Winner Game 7, 6 p.m., championship
Thursday's Game
Game 9: If necessary, 1 or 6 p.m.

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