Clarksville, Ark. – The Eagles mounted a five-run rally in the sixth inning to win game one 8-7, then fell in the second game of the day to split their double-header with East Texas Baptist Saturday.
Ozarks (6-5, 1-2 ASC) was down 7-3 going into the bottom of the sixth inning in game one. Grady Finley started the inning with a leadoff single, but he was followed by two ground outs. A two-out rally then erupted for the Eagles. Zach Walker got the scoring started with a hard hit ball to left field that drove in Finley. Andrew Beck and Dakota Ebarb then added a pair of RBI singles, bringing the Eagles within one run of East Texas Baptist (9-3, 2-1 ASC). Next up was Evan Castleberry, who put Ozarks on top 8-7 after a two-run single over the third baseman's head.
The Eagles got on the board first in game one, going up 2-0 in the third after Ebarb drove in two runs with a single through the right side. ETBU tied it 2-2 in the fourth with a two-run home run by Kameron Sumrall. Ozarks added another run in the bottom of the fourth, but the Tigers plated five runs in the fifth to go up 7-3.
After their five-run two-out rally in the bottom of the sixth, the Eagles brought in Jacob Barker to close the game and he earned his third save of the year. Dalton Spurgeon (1-0) recorded his first win of the season on the mound.
In game two, East Texas Baptist plated three unearned runs in the third inning and Ozarks was not able to recover their momentum after that, falling 12-2 in the final game of the series.
Beck tried to get the offense ignited for the Eagles, adding an RBI single in the third to bring the score to 4-1. Beck had three hits in game two and went 6-for-7 in Saturday's double-header.
The Eagles had just as many hits as East Texas Baptist in game two, with each team totaling 12, but the difference in the game was the fact that Ozarks could not capitalize on those hits and left 12 runners on base.
Ely Gordon (2-1) collected his first loss of the season for the Eagles.
Ozarks will be back at home next weekend as they host Concordia University in another conference series March 4-5.
By Jackie Bacon
