The way Saturday's game at Tal Anderson Field was fairly predictable considering the starters.
Omaha's
Mark Timmins and Oral Roberts' Ledgend Smith were dominant when the teams met earlier this season.
Smith kept the Mavericks scoreless until the seventh inning of ORU's win in Tulsa, Okla., in April. Timmins then blanked the Golden Eagles over seven innings in Omaha's shutout win the next day.
Neither factored in the decision on Saturday as their teams played a scoreless game until the 11th at Tal Anderson Field. Oral Roberts then scored on two wild pitches to pull out a 2-0 win to even the series.
Joey Machado (4-5) suffered the loss on Senior Night when two of his pitches bounced away from catcher
Matt Baughn and toward the ORU dugout with a runner on third base. Cade Denton (4-0) continued what Smith started by limiting the Mavericks to only one hit over 3.2 innings to win it.
"That game was going to come down to who broke first and, unfortunately, that was us," Omaha coach
Evan Porter said. "It was great night to pitch, and a tough night to hit. And that's why it was a 0-0 ballgame going into the 11th with two really good offensive teams. Mark and Joey did a great job, and their guys were pretty electric too."
Timmins and Machado both pitched their way out of trouble before the final inning. The Mavericks, meanwhile, put little together offensively. They had one runner in scoring position before the seventh.
Mike Boeve extended his hitting streak to 24 games, and
Jack Lombardi pushed his to 14. But those were two of Omaha's four total hits in the game.
The Mavericks loaded the bases with one out in the eighth, but they failed to cash in on their best scoring opportunity of the night. Denton got the Golden Eagles out of trouble with two force outs.
"We've been there before this season, but usually it's been when its 28 degrees and you're trying to outlast in a different way," Porter said. "It's a different feel when the weather warms up like this. We're kind of built more offensively and so are they. Both teams really on their hitters to hit a little bit to score runs. We needed to do a better job of manufacturing."
