OMAHA, Neb. — Back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the 12th inning lifted Omaha Baseball to a dramatic 8-7 walk-off win over visiting Oral Roberts.
The Mavericks trailed 7-6 with one out when junior catcher
Cardel Dick crushed his team-leading fourth homer of the season to tie the game. Senior
Drew Borner followed and drilled a 3-1 pitch to center field to lift Omaha (11-17, 7-5) to the win.
In salvaging the final game of the series at Tal Anderson Field, the Mavericks handed ORU (20-13, 11-1) its first loss in Summit League play this season. Second-place Omaha travels to Kansas State for a nonconference game Tuesday before returning to conference play next weekend at North Dakota State.
"A lot of times you want a character win to start building off, and I feel like these guys, they deserve it," head coach
Evan Porter said. "We haven't been playing our best baseball this weekend, but they came out today with an attitude of we're gonna go about our business and stay consistent and keep doing what we're doing that's made us successful in past games."
The Mavericks overcame deficits four times in the game. In addition to the extra-inning heroics, Omaha had back-to-back long balls in a four-run fifth inning. Sophomore designated hitter
Nick Riggs hit a three-run shot off reliever Jack Hill, followed by a solo blast from
Tyler Bishop, the third homer of the season for both. Bishop's homer was the 20th of his Omaha career, moving him into 10th place in the career record book.
It appeared the Mavericks might squander another solid starting pitching effort when
Sam Beck left the game with a 5-3 lead after throwing six innings, scattering nine hits with nine strikeouts.
Brayden Curtis came in with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the 12th and was credited with the win as outfielder
Hayden Lewis tracked down a Makani Tanaka fly ball against the fence to set up the dramatic walk-off.
Seven Omaha batters had multi-hit games.
Chase Diggins went 2 for 4, league-leading hitter
Jackson Trout went 2 for 6 with an RBI, Bishop went 2 for 5, Lewis went 2 for 5,
Mason Gaines went 2 for 3 and Dick went 2 for 2.
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