Stars stymie Saints’ offense in season finale
An early, offensive effort by the Oklahoma City led the Stars to victory over the Randall Saints on senior night.
The Stars concluded their regular season schedule on Monday, dominating the Saints 19-2.
Senior shortstop Jacob Chappell said the aggressiveness within the Stars’ batting lineup allowed them to get ahead and attack the Randall pitching staff early.
“We’re explosive throughout the lineup,” Chappell said. “We like to drive guys in, get on base and hit for a while when have the opportunity to do so.”
The Stars (43-5) took advantage of having runners in scoring position. In the shortened seven-inning contest due to the NAIA run rule, the Stars scored 15 of their 19 runs with two outs.
Things did not get better for the Saints (7-39) as the Stars sent 11 batters to the plate in the second inning. The Stars chased the Saints’ Kating, after one inning. Marc Gooch replaced him in the second inning for the Saints and allowed seven earned runs on five hits.
The Stars’ pitching staff took over following the early-inning rallies and shut down the Saints’ offense, only allowing three hits and two runs over seven innings. The junior from Bronx, New York, Ricky Parra, collected the win for the Stars. Parra moved to 3-0 on the season.
Offensively for the Stars, second baseman Brandon Geiger went 3-for-4 with three runs scored. Lane Milligan also added three hits and five RBIs for the Stars.
Clint Cosby had one hit and one RBI for the Saints. Dakota Rodgers and Nigel Smith accounted for the other two Saints’ hits.
The Saints could not find any rhythm on the mound today, using seven pitchers in six innings and allowing 20 hits. Freshman pitcher Evan Kating was charged with the loss and has a 1-8 record on the year.
This was the fifth time in the 2018 season that the Stars’ totaled 20 hits in a game.
Heading into the postseason after tonight’s finale, senior outfielder Lane Milligan believes the team can ride this momentum the team has into the postseason.
“It keeps us going,” Milligan said. “We have won 25 of our last 26 games. We’re playing good baseball right now. We needed something to keep our bats going and our pitchers fresh heading into the postseason. Things are going to get a lot more serious soon.”
The Stars enter the postseason ranked No. 5 in both the NAIA Bo Chip Power Index and the final regular season coaches’ poll.
Box score from May, 1, 2018
Oklahoma City Stars versus Randall Saints
Jim Wade Stadium, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
| TEAM | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| RANDALL (7-39) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | x | x | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| OCU (43-5) | 4 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | x | x | x | 19 | 20 | 0 |
W: Ricky Parra, 3-0, 3.09 ERA L: Evan Kating, 1-8, 9.50 ERA
Hub Roberts 