TULSA, Okla. – Omaha put forth a valiant effort to battle back from a big early deficit against Oral Roberts Friday. But now its season will be on the line on Saturday at the Summit League tournament.
The Mavericks will face top-seeded North Dakota State in a 4:05 p.m. elimination game after their rally came up short in a 12-8 loss to the Golden Eagles in a winners-bracket contest at J.L. Johnson Stadium.
Omaha (25-30) faced trouble from the beginning. Starting pitcher
Mark Timmins tweaked his left knee during pregame warmups and only lasted an inning. The Mavericks were down 6-0 by the end of three.
However, they battled back against Summit League Pitcher of the Year Ledgend Smith to pull within a run at 6-5 after four innings. And they were down only 9-7 after five with plenty of game remaining.
"I'm really proud of how we're playing right now," Omaha coach
Evan Porter said. "We've got some fighters on this team, and they showed it. We found a way to come back, even though we went down early. All the credit goes to our team. They never got down once and made it a really close ballgame."
Timmins (2-3), despite his pregame mishap, started the game. But he walked the first two batters he faced and left with a 3-0 deficit after only 38 pitches. Then ORU got three unearned runs in the third.
The Mavericks, however, battled back in the fourth.
Noah Greise opened the inning with a double, becoming the first of six straight batters to reach base against Smith.
Mike Boeve's RBI single started the Omaha scoring surge.
Jack Lombardi,
Devin Hurdle and
Will Hanafan also drove in runs to make it 6-5.
The Golden Eagles (37-18) responded with three runs in the fifth only to have the Mavericks pull back to within 9-7 when
Eduardo Rosario and
Eddie Satisky hit back-to-back home runs off Smith to chase him.
That's as close as Omaha got. ORU added three runs in the eighth to advance to Sunday's championship.
Six Maverick players finished with two hits each, but now they must keep winning to stay alive.
"We've got the right group to do this," Porter said. "They're just playing their best baseball right now. The goal every season is to be playing your best baseball by the end of the season. If we can find a way to bring the energy that we've had these last two games tomorrow … I've got a feeling our guys are up for it."
