Box Score

Three different Dallas Baptist freshmen pitchers combined to shut out No. 10 Oklahoma (33-12) on Tuesday night at Horner Ballpark, 2-0. Cory Taylor set the tone for the evening with five scoreless innings  and was followed by Brandon Koch and Joseph Shaw. The three combined for twelve strikeouts and limited the Sooners to three hits as Oklahoma was shut out for only the second time this season. The only other team to hold Oklahoma to zero runs was Texas back on April 6.
 
The Patriot (23-22) offense managed only nine hits in the game but the two runs were more than enough for the young hurlers. Duncan McAlpine drove in both runs for DBU, one in the first and one in the eighth, and each time he scored Ronnie Mitchell. In the first, Mitchell singled and stole second ahead of a two-out McAlpine single. In the eighth, Mitchell was hit by pitch and raced around the bases on a double into the leftcenter gap. DBU had five hits with runners on and none were bigger than the McAlpine safeties.
 
The day was ruled by Patriot pitching, however. Taylor was outstanding in his five complete innings. The freshman righthander struck out a career-high seven, walked two, and allowed only two hits in the shutout innings. He pitched around trouble in the first, third, and fifth innings and worked around a one out double in the fourth with a strike-them-out-throw-them-out double play as Jack Mayfield collected the base hit before being caught stealing as Kolby Carpenter fanned. Taylor gave way to fellow freshman Brandon Koch with DBU clinging to a 1-0 lead in the sixth.
 
Koch came on and threw two perfect innings, striking out three on twenty pitches, and the freshman pitcher train continued as Joseph Shaw strode to the mound for the eighth inning. Shaw kept the shutout going but had to pitch around trouble to do it. After a one-out single, Shaw induced a groundout to second that could have resulted in an inning-ending double play but RJ Talamantes, who entered the inning before as a defensive replacement, pulled Nash Knight off the bag at second base with his feed and Shaw had two runners on with two outs to get in the inning - and the freshman got those two outs to keep the game 1-0 to the bottom of the eighth. A three pitch strikeout of Anthony Hermelyn resulted in the second out and a tapper back to the mound finished the inning with no harm done.
 
Shaw completed his second career save, and second in the last three games, with a perfect ninth inning and DBU picked up their fifth straight win over the Sooners. The Patriots will return to Western Athletic action on Friday as they head across town to face UT-Arlington at 6:30 pm.