OKLAHOMA CITY - The Oklahoma City Stars baseball team claimed its spot in the Sooner Athletic Conference Championship game after Hunter Brown delivered the go ahead two-RBI double in the bottom of the eighth leading OCU to a 7-5 victory over SAGU. 

Oklahoma City Stars – 7

Southwestern Assemblies of God  — 5

Game Summary

Oklahoma City found itself in a deep hole after the Lions plated five runs in the top of the second inning off of three RBI singles and one RBI triple by Tim Compomizzi of SAGU. Tristan Williams gave OCU its first run of the game in the bottom of the second inning with an RBI ground out to score Chad Pike.

The Stars put another run on the board in the fourth as Aiden Van Rensum smacked an RBI double to left centr that scored Barrett Daniel from second. Continuing to chip away at the lead, Oklahoma City snagged one more run in the seventh as Aiden Alexander brought in Williams on a ground out to first. 

Starting pitcher Jacob Burkett was able to hold the Lions to five runs as the semifinal matchup entered the bottom of the eighth 5-3 with the advantage in favor of SAGU. After clawing their way back the Stars offense came to life drawing back-to-back walks for Trent Kiraly and Chad Pike. After back-to-back strikeouts Oklahoma City was in danger of letting the momentum go to waste however it was Tristan Williams making sure that was not the case by slashing an RBI single to left that brought in Kiraly from second to cut the deficit to just one. 

At the nine hole spot, Hunter Brown worked his at-bat to a 3-0 count before having the green light on the next pitch to which he drove to the right center field wall to bring in the tying and go-ahead run. Aiden Alexander followed up Brown's at-bat with an RBI single to give the Stars an extra insurance run making the score 7-5. 

Stars closer Chad Pike entered the game in the ninth and to no surprise sat down the Lions in order to earn his 14th save of the season and place his team in the SAC title game.

Game Notes

-For the fourth straight season the Stars have placed themselves in the Sooner Athletic Conference Championship game and will look to clinch the tournament title for the third year in a row. 

-Hunter Brown led the way with a game-high three hits including two doubles to bring his season total to seven. Sunday's game was the first time Brown has collected multiple extra base hits this season and the second time he has tallied multiple RBI. 

-Aiden Van Rensum finished the day 2-for-4 with two doubles giving him back-to-back games with two hits and the first game of Van Rensum's season that he has tallied a pair of doubles which brought his season total to eight on the year. 

-The top five hitters in the Stars order all reached base with a hit including Chad Pike who hits safely two times in the contest and came around to score two different times. 

-Aiden Alexander extended his streak to five games after going 1-for-5 with two RBI for the second straight game. 

-Tristan Williams provided the Stars with two RBI as well as the sixth-year senior scored multiple times and brought the Stars to within one run with his two-out RBI single in the eighth inning. 

-Jacob Burkett made the start for Oklahoma City where he went a season-high eight innings pitched allowing five runs on seven hits to go along with two walks and three strikeouts. After giving up five runs in the second, Burkett dialed in a shutout the Lions for the rest of the way as the junior gave up just one hit and two base runners outside of the second inning 

-Chad Pike extended his NAIA lead in saves after capturing his 14th of the year by sitting down the Lions in order with one strikeout. Pike keeps the opponent scoreless for the 13th time in his last 14 outings and has allowed just three hits over 12.2 innings with 11 strikeouts in that span.

Next Up

Oklahoma City will go up against the one seeded Mid-America Christian Evangels in the Sooner Athletic Conference Championship game which will be played at 12 PM in Chickasha, Okla., at Bill Smith Ballpark. MACU took two-of-three from the Stars in the regular season.