Tigers defeat Drury in second round of Heffington Optical Invitational

S PRINGFIELD, Mo- Ouachita Baptist picked up a huge fifth inning offensively and never looked back in defeating Drury, 10-4, in the second round of the Heffington Optical Invitational at Meador Park in Springfield, Mo. on Saturday.

Ouachita (10-8) used a seven-run fifth inning coupled with a solid complete game outing from junior Sam McGill (2-2) to stop Drury (5-8) on their home field, after losing to St. Cloud State, 5-3, on Friday.

Senior All-American Will Gowdy led off the game with a solo home run (3) to left field, followed by a double from Ouachita freshman Landon Flax, scoring on an RBI groundout from sophomore Brock Green to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead.

Drury put together a run in the fourth inning to cut the deficit to 2-1, as Joel Potts singled and scored on an RBI fielder’s groundout from Harrison Waters.

When the fifth inning came around, that’s when the Tigers bats came alive, as Ouachita junior Steve Mirizzi and freshman Landon Flax each led off the inning with a pair of triples. Junior Cass Via and sophomore Brock Green added back-to-back singles, as Via scored Flax to give Ouachita a 4-1 lead.

The Tigers picked up back-t0-back walks, loading the bases for senior Luke Hardcastle who hammered a grand slam home run to left field, scoring the final run to give Ouachita seven runs on six hits and a 9-1 lead.

Drury answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth, followed by a run in the seventh to bring the score to 9-4. Ouachita Baptist answered with a single run in the ninth as Hardcastle singled with two outs, scoring a batter later as junior Ben Warner recorded an RBI double to give Ouachita a 10-4 victory.

McGill was impressive in limiting 13 hits from Drury to just four earned runs, including three strikeouts and two walks. Hardcastle has a stellar day at the plate, finishing at 3-for-5, including four RBIs and two runs scored. The RBI total was the most for the senior in almost exactly a year since recording 5 on March 7, 2009 against Montevallo. Flax continued to led Ouachita at the plate with a 4-for-5 effort, stretching his team-high batting average to .380 in 2010. Warner and freshman Justin Hall added 2-for-4 performances at the plate.

Ouachita Baptist returns to the field for the final round of the Heffington Optical Invitational on Sunday against Missouri S&T at 1:30 p.m.