ORU rally takes down OSU again (TW)

[praetorfenix86]

By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer

6/4/2006

Rothford's big hits lift the Eagles to a big victory over the Cowboys.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Oral Roberts University slugger Chad Rothford doesn't bother to choke up on the bat when he's swinging with two strikes.

"I was taught to hit the ball as hard as I can," Rothford said. "I'm a guess hitter and if I guess right, I put the right part of the bat on the ball."

Guess what? Rothford's big swing powered ORU to a 5-4 victory over top-seeded Oklahoma State on Saturday night in the semifinals of the Fayetteville Regional.

Rothford went 3-for-4 with a home run and two doubles and drove in all five of ORU's runs.

"Chad," said Golden Eagles coach Rob Walton, "came up big tonight."

So did ORU.

A Baum Stadium crowd of 3,451 watched the Golden Eagles (40-14) beat OSU for the third time this season (a first since 1989), win back-to-back regional games (a first since '87), and start a regional 2-0 (a first since 1978, the year of the program's only College World Series appearance).

The Golden Eagles (40-14) play next at 7 p.m. Sunday against the survivor between OSU and Arkansas. One win would send ORU to its first super regional.

"It's huge," said starting pitcher Chris Ashman. "This isn't just for us. This is for all the alumni."

The 20th-ranked Cowboys (40-18) meet Arkansas on Sunday at 2 p.m. OSU had been 32-1 this season when leading after the seventh inning, but the Golden Eagles won it in the eighth with a two-run double by Rothford.

"It's disappointing. It's way disappointing," said OSU coach Frank Anderson. "It's a tough loss. But you've got to get this game behind you. You can't throw stuff and go crazy. It's behind you at this point. We've got to go out there and get ready to play at 2 o'clock."

ORU closer Sean Jarrett, who pitched the final five innings of a dramatic, 11-inning win over Arkansas on Friday, pitched the ninth for his seventh save. Jarrett seemed unfazed by the fact that he threw 46 pitches the night before.

"I felt pretty good," Jarrett said. "I was a little blessed to have a pretty good arm that gets back pretty good."

But the night belonged to Rothford.

The 6-5, 275-pound switch-hitting first baseman slammed his 11th home run of the season in the fifth inning against OSU starter Brae Wright (8-4), and lashed a two-out double off the wall to send home another run in the sixth.

Wright finished 7 1/3 innings, gave up seven hits, walked two, struck out four and threw 100 pitches, but he couldn't master Rothford.

"He seemed to be able to come up with the big hit when he needed to get it done. He beat me pretty much all day. All the credit goes to him," Wright said. "The one he hit out I thought was a good pitch. He made a real good adjustment on it. The other at-bat, I kind of left one up. He did what any good hitter would do. You make a mistake, he's going to hit it hard."

Rothford's biggest hit, however, came in the eighth inning.

Wright hadn't walked anyone all night, but, with a 4-3 lead, passed Jake Kahaulelio on four pitches, allowed a sacrifice bunt by Bouchie and walked Tim Torres on four pitches.

After a pitching change brought on Oliver Odle, Rothford fouled off five pitches before smacking a 2-2 offering from Odle down the line in right field to put ORU on top 5-4.

All three of Rothford's hits came with two strikes. "As big as that kid is, if he runs into one, it's going to leave the yard," said Anderson. "We left one out over the plate a little bit that he got the barrel on it."

The Golden Eagles were just 3-11 this season in games in which they trailed after seven innings. Now, thanks to Jarrett, they're 25-0 in games in which they lead after eight innings.

Erik Crichton (4-0) pitched a scoreless eighth for the win.

"The inning that Crichton threw was huge, when he puts up a zero there," Walton said.

Ashman gave up three solo home runs -- to Corey Brown in the first inning, to Adam Carr in the second and to Ty Wright in the seventh. The last home run Ashman allowed was two months earlier -- a long solo blast by Deik Scram -- in his coming out party against Oklahoma State, a 5-2 victory at Drillers Stadium on April 4. That's a span of 48 1/3 innings, or 189 batters faced.

Carr, last year's Big 12 home runs leader (22) hit his 11th of the year to end a 10-game stretch of 37 at-bats without one. Ashman threw 122 pitches and struck out a career-high eight.

Walton said he wouldn't rule out Jarrett for Sunday duty. Jarrett threw 15 pitches and, while wearing an ice pack, said he would start working on getting his arm back Saturday night.

[ORUalum]

here's a link to video highlights of the ORU-OSU game from channel 9 in OKC...

http://newsok.com/video/1862336/