Oklahoma Panhandle State University

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 | Box Score 3 | Box Score 4 Goodwell, Okla.—The Oklahoma Panhandle State Baseball team hosted a four-game series against the University of Sioux Falls (S.D.) Friday and Saturday. The Aggies earned their second win of the season in Friday's opener, scoring two runs in the seventh to pull off a 3-2 victory over the Cougars; USF took game two in seven innings 14-3 and swept Sunday with two wins over OPSU 6-4 and 20-6.

With senior Sam Beattie on the mound for the Aggies in Friday's first meet the Cougars were kept calm, getting only three hits for one earned run off Beattie, who threw eight strikeouts in his seven innings of work. The Aggies trailed 0-2 going into the bottom of the sixth when their lead-off hitter, Quinn O'Neill, was hit by a pitch to reach first base; he then stole second and third, and scored on a ground-out by Joseph Cerda to put OPSU on the board. Beattie tossed a swinging strikeout for the third Cougar out at the top of the seventh and, senior Payton Osbon stepped up with a two-run single on two outs and bases loaded, to give Beattie and the Aggies the win in a scheduled seven inning matchup.

Game two on Friday was set to go nine innings but was ended early as the Cougars jumped out to a 7-0 lead after the first four innings, and added seven more runs in innings six and seven. The Aggies scored their only three runs of the game in the bottom of the fifth as O'Neill hit an RBI single, and was brought home along with Osbon on a single by Cerda that went for two RBI. Pitcher Adrian Lopez was given the loss for game two after allowing seven runs to score on seven hits in 2.1 innings. Senior Logan Litton saw the mound for 3.1 innings giving up four hits and one run and was followed by Josh Gordon and Zane Grigsby who each threw two outs.

Sunday's first game seemed promising for Panhandle as the Aggies went ahead 4-3 in the fourth inning; but Sioux Falls put up two runs in the fifth and one in the seventh, while the Aggie bats would bring in no more runs for the game. Jordan Ankrum led off on the mound for OPSU and took the loss in six innings on ten hits that went for five runs earned. Joel Perez came in for an inning of relief in the seventh allowing two hits and one earned run. O'Neill scored the Aggies' first run of the day off a single by Daniel Blake in the bottom of the first inning. In the fourth Derek Stallworth hit an RBI single down the right field line to score Beckner, and then Stallworth and Cody Dion came through on a single by Tiler Fletcher worth two RBI. The Aggies totaled eight hits and had zero errors in the game; USF had twelve hits with one error.

Game four got off to a bad start for the home team. The Cougars scored eight runs in the opening inning and had brought in five more before the Aggies could muster up one run in the bottom of the third, another RBI single by O'Neill. OPSU was down by 14 runs after five innings (1-14), but the two teams decided to keep playing. The fifth inning went scoreless for both and each team mirrored the other scoring two runs each in the sixth and three each in the seventh before calling the ballgame. Fletcher brought in two RBI for the Aggies on a single in the bottom of the sixth, and three singles scored one RBI each for Blake, Dehryan Noriega and Haden Adams in the last half-inning. A combined total of ten pitchers got playing time in the series closer, with OPSU's starter, Joseph Cerda, taking the loss with one inning on the mound. Jonny Mireles (1.1), Chance Jones (1.2), Felipe Beltran (2.0) and Edward Lopez (1.0) each came in for the Aggies.

For the series Aggie batters averaged .286 and were led by Tiler Fletcher who went four of eight with a team-high of four RBI on the weekend. The Aggies totaled 30 hits including three doubles hit by Dehryan Noriega, Quinn O'Neill and Austin Beckner. O'Neill brought through three runs on four hits over ten at bats and was three for three in stolen base attempts. OPSU's pitchers added up 27 strikeouts and gave up 48 hits on 37 earned runs combined. Their opponents took eight doubles and three home runs for an overall batting average of .366.

The Aggies remain at home this weekend with another four-game series Saturday and Sunday against Wayne State College; double-headers begin at 11 a.m. each day. A single nine-inning game is also set to take place at home on Wednesday, March 2 against Northwestern Oklahoma State with a 1 p.m. start time.