No. 3 Stars Slip Past Hillcats, 11-7

KD Radford tallied two hits and two RBI against OCU Thursday night (photo by gssphotography.com).

Rogers State fell behind early and couldn’t complete a late comeback as the Hillcats fell 11-7 to third-ranked Oklahoma City Thursday at Jim Wade Stadium in Oklahoma City.
 

The Stars shot out to a 5-0 lead after the first two innings. OCU put together six straight hits in opening frame and used a pair of infield singles to produce runs in the second. RSU answered with three runs in the top of the fourth. Rob Rodriguez doubled to right and Kevin Radford and Brandt Barnes followed with RBI singles.
 

OCU pushed another run across in the bottom of the fourth and extended the lead to 10-3 with four runs in the bottom of the sixth. The Hillcats answered the bell once again with four runs in the top of the seventh. Colton West doubled to score Barnes and Luis Caraballo plated Steven Smith with a single to right. Radford chased home West and Caraballo with a triple to the left field gap.
 

However, the Cats were unable to score another run. RSU stranded base-runners in eight of the nine innings and left five runners in scoring position. Dustin Williams (6-1) earned the victory for the Stars with 6.1 innings of work. Jacob Weenas (1-2) took the loss after allowing 10 runs on 12 hits in 5.1 innings on the hill. Josh Phillippi kept the Cats within striking distance by allowing just one unearned run over the final 2.1 innings.
 

Barnes, Caraballo and Radford enjoyed multi-hit games for RSU. Nathan Bryan tallied three of the Stars’ 14 hits.
 

Rogers State (15-10, 5-8) and Oklahoma City (24-6, 9-1) will complete the three-game series with a doubleheader Saturday afternoon in Claremore. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Hillcat Complex and the games will be carried live on RSU Radio 91.3 FM.