BETHANY, Okla. — The Oklahoma Panhandle State baseball team (12-32, 4-23 SAC) got off to strong starts but could not keep Southwestern Christian (25-24, 8-19) down in the season finale Saturday, as it lost both games of the doubleheader, 5-4 and 22-8.
Game 1: The Eagles took the lead early in the second game of the series, keeping the Aggies to no hits in the top of the first and scoring two of their own in the bottom half of the frame.
OPSU came back in the second with
Alejandro Hernandez getting a home run that brought the score to 2-1, SCU, going into the third inning.
Genesis Nunez followed Hernadez's lead in the top of the third by hitting the second OPSU homer of the day. Tied at 2-2, starting pitcher
Matao Laguna and the Aggie defense continued the momentum and kept the Eagles at bay in the bottom of the third.
Panhandle State took the lead in the fourth on an error and obstruction call that plated
Michael Perry and Hernandez, respectively, making it 4-2. The Eagles, however, answered with a two-run double in the fourth to tie things before getting their walk-off win in the seventh as the Aggie bats mustered only one hit – a
David Garcia base knock – over the final three frames.
Laguna tied his longest outing of the season Saturday with five innings pitched, while Nunez paced the offense with a pair of hits.
Game 3: Determined to change the outcome of the third game against SCU,
Devin Lopez racked in two RBIs in the first inning with a double to left field as OPSU took advantage of the leadoff single from
Israel Gandara and walk drawn by Nunez. Cleanup hitter
Jackson Somerville kept the energy high in the first frame, notching his second triple of the season, which plated Lopez and chased the Eagles' starter. With only one out gone in the game, Garcia made it 4-0 with a sacrifice fly that allowed Somerville to tag up and get home.
Panhandle State's lead was short-lived, as the Eagles countered OPSU's four runs with a five-run bottom of the first.
Garcia got the run back on his second sacrifice fly of the day in the third inning, tying things at 5-5. Though SCU reclaimed an advantage, the contest remained tight with Nunez' second homer of the doubleheader (and team-best 11th of the season). His solo shot cut the deficit to two, 8-6, in the fifth.
The Eagles got rolling from there in what turned into a blowout, and the Aggies' scoring in 2026 was capped off by
Philip Matos' seventh-inning solo homer, good for his sixth big fly of the year.
2026 Accomplishments: Though the Aggies fell short of qualifying for the SAC Tournament, highlights on the season included a six-game winning streak in the nonconference slate (the program's longest since 2019) and a recent upset of No. 18 Mid-America Christian (the program's first ranked win since 2021). OPSU baseball has 10 outgoing seniors as it looks to regroup and retool for 2027 competition.