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Alec Riner -
Jackson Hill -
Micah Simmons -
Garret Wilson
After a hot but successful day, the players cooled off their coach with a water cooler shower as they celebrated.
The Oklahoma Christian School baseball team swept its bi-district playoff series with Star-Spencer in Edmond Friday afternoon, winning 32-0 and 21-0.
OCS (23-6) will host a regional next week.
Star-Spencer (4-18) rarely got a base runner against a dominant opponent.
In game two, OCS junior Alec Riner pitched a five-inning no-hitter.
Riner said he felt good about his performance.
“I missed a few elevated fast balls,” Riner said. “But (the) breaking ball was working, changeup was working. Working the two sides of the plate really well.”
The Saints took game one with an offensive explosion, scoring 13 runs in the second inning and 10 in the fourth. In the third inning, the umpires instructed the Bobcats to tag an OCS runner standing with both feet on first. The umpires called him out to mercifully end the inning. This came shortly after a Star-Spencer outfielder had been injured after colliding with a teammate.
OCS sophomore Jackson Hill pitched game one. He allowed one hit through five innings.
Junior Gage Gilchrist had 6 RBIs including a 3-run home run in the first inning.
OCS coach Romus Cezar said the Saints did not do anything special to have a dominant offensive performance.
“We just stayed with our approach,” Cezar said. “Stayed together as a team and tried to string as many quality at-bats together as we could.”
OCS began game two on the same scoring pace, leading 18-0 after the second inning for the second-straight game. The Saints began emptying the bench in the third and mercifully scored only three runs in the final two innings of another run-rule victory.
The Saints scored 12 in the first, led by sophomore Corbin Kwan’s grand slam, the game’s only home run.
Riner struck out 10 batters in five innings of work. He gave up no hits and no walks. The only Bobcat to reach base did so on a dropped third strike.
Cezar said Riner was awesome.
“He was working on some of his stuff, and it looked good tonight,” Cezar said. “That’s good for him mentally to build on for regionals next week.”
Kwan led the team with 5 RBIs in game two. Five Saints came to the plate off the bench. Sophomore Jack Sampson led that group with an RBI and 2 runs scored.
Cezar said being able to empty the bench in a playoff game is a good luxury.
“It’s good, because we’re kinda young,” Cezar said. “We only have two seniors, so the more guys that get experience in these type of games, the better it is for us in the long run.”