Dallas Baptist University Athletics

THE RUNDOWN
DBU (6-3) began a four-game homestand on Thursday night with a walk-off win over Oral Roberts (3-6) at Horner Ballpark. Jake Bennett played the hero for the Patriots, drilling his first career walk-off home run as the leadoff hitter in the ninth inning.
 
Landon Underhill ignited the DBU offense with a leadoff triple to start the second inning. After an Adam Berghult walk and a Cooper Neville hit-by-pitch loaded the bases, Keaton Grady legged out a deep grounder to second base to advance each runner 90 feet and score the night's first run.
 
On the mound for the Patriots, Russ Smith limited traffic on the basepaths for ORU, allowing only one Golden Eagle to reach second base through four innings. His defense backed him up, turning two double plays, including a relay on a foul out completed by the trio of Ryan Martin, Keaton Grady, and Chayton Krauss to end the third.
 
In the bottom of the fourth, Dylan Cupp began the inning with extra bases, doubling to left center. After advancing to third on a sacrifice bunt, Neville manufactured a run on a sac fly to left field to make it a 2-0 game, but ORU quickly answered with an RBI single in the top of the fifth by Austin Nicholson to draw it back to a one-run difference.
 
The Patriots bounced right back with a pair of tallies in the home half of the fifth. Ben Tryon doubled to left-center for DBU's third extra-base leadoff hit of the night and came around to score on the next play, when Krauss delivered an RBI single to center field. On the same play, Krauss took advantage of an error by Golden Eagle first baseman Cooper Kelly to move to second base and into scoring position. Taking third on a sac bunt, the Patriot first baseman crossed the plate on a Berghult groundout for the second run of the inning and a 4-1 advantage.
 
The ORU offense found its spark in the next half-inning. Hudson Ellis, Wailele Kane-Yates, and Cooper Combs notched consecutive singles to commence the top of the sixth, with Ellis touching home on the left-center knock by Combs. In the next plate appearance, catcher Matthew Mainord brought Tanaka home on a sac fly to bring the teams' totals back within one run, and later, the Golden Eagles loaded the bases and walked in a run, as Nicholson watched ball four to level the score at 4-4.
 
After a quiet seventh, Kelly tripled for ORU in the eighth, and Martell Davis made it a five-run turnaround with an RBI single to center that put the Golden Eagles in the driver's seat, 5-4.
 
In DBU's turn to bat, Neville came to the plate with two gone and no runners on. With his squad in need of a run, the lefty launched a fly ball to right field that cleared the fence for his first homer of the season to even the score at five runs apiece.
 
With the game reset in the ninth, ORU threatened to undo Neville's work. Back-to-back Golden Eagle singles prompted Dan Heefner to bring JT Long into the game to seize the threat. With runners on first and second and no outs, Long induced a spinning grounder to second base that was misplayed by Grady, loading the bases. At the game's turning point, the right-handed reliever worked three consecutive strikeouts, utilizing a vicious cutter to trim down the hitters and leave the game tied heading into the ninth.
 
Jake Bennett was the first Patriot to face off against the Golden Eagles' new arm, Kash Ferris, and he would be the last Patriot to bat on Friday night. Bennett turned on a pitch over the heart of the plate and sent it soaring into the Dallas sky and over the left-field wall for a walk-off home run to finish a 6-5 battle between DBU and ORU.
 
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
- Jake Bennett's walk-off home run was the first of his career.
- Six different Patriots scored a run on Thursday night.
- The DBU pitching staff has not allowed a home run in four straight games.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
5 - With a stolen base against ORU, Keaton Grady is now tied with Cooper Neville for the team lead in stolen bases with five.
8 - Eight of the nine Patriots in the lineup recorded a hit.
10 - With 10 punch-outs on Thursday night, DBU pitching threw 10 or more strikeouts in a game for the fifth time this season.
 
ON DECK
DBU plays its second of four home games this week on Friday evening. The Patriots face off with Air Force at 6:35 p.m. at Horner Ballpark. Read Full Article