Saturday, April 28, 2007

Oral Roberts pitching staff limited Valparaiso to just two runs total on Saturday afternoon as the Golden Eagles won both ends of a doubleheader against the Crusaders 7-2 and 8-0 in Tulsa, Okla.

In the opener Valpo jumped in front on Dallas Cawiezell's (Long Grove, Iowa/North Scott H.S.) homerun to centerfield. The Golden Eagles answered with a two-run shot off the bat of Kelly Minissale, his second in as many days.

Chad Rothford increased Oral Roberts' lead to 4-1 in the third with his two-run homer before Cawiezell went deep again for the Brown and Gold in the top of the fourth.

The hosts answered with two more in the bottom half of the inning, one on a single by Minissale and the other on a double play groundout. Rothford added the final run in the eighth with a two-out double.

Cawiezell finished the game with three hits in four at bats while Jeff Rickert (Hamilton, Ohio/Fairfield H.S.) and Jason Brunelli (Greenfield, Wis./Greenfield H.S.) adding two hits a piece. Oral Roberts had five players with multi-hit efforts on the way to 12 hits in the contest.

Jerry Sullivan (3-0) worked six innings allowing seven hits and just the two runs while striking out six to earn the win for the Golden Eagles while Harvey Yergin (Akron, Ohio/Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy) suffered the loss (3-6) for the Crusaders, allowing 10 hits and six runs in six innings of work.

Oral Roberts found the scoreboard in the first inning of game number two, scoring on a RBI groundout and Stephen Pearson's run-scoring single in the third made it 2-0 hosts. Three more runs came across home plate in both the fourth and fifth innings for the Golden Eagles as Oral Roberts extended its winning streak to nine straight games.

Elliott Gibbs (Munster, Ind./Munster H.S.) started and suffered the loss (2-5) for the Crusaders, allowing seven hits and five runs in just 3.1innings of work. Jeremy Hefner (6-1) went the distance for Oral Roberts, surrendering just four hits in the seven-inning complete game victory while striking out 11.

Brenden Duffy went 4-for-4 with two runs batted in and three runs scored to pace the Golden Eagles while four Crusaders picked up one hit each. Josh Piazza (Glenview, Ill./Notre Dame H.S.) failed to register a base hit to see his streak end at 13 consecutive games.

Valparaiso (14-23, 3-4 Mid-Con) and Oral Roberts (23-14, 7-0) will wrap up their four-game weekend series on Sunday afternoon in Tulsa. First pitch is set for 12 p.m.