CLAREMORE, Okla. – The Rogers State baseball team could not overcome a rain delay in the middle of the series finale with Texas-Permian Basin falling, 15-4, Saturday afternoon at the Diamond Sports Complex.
The Falcons came out of the 1-hour, 6-minute delay after five completed innings and quickly put up five runs to break open the game, finishing off the Heartland Conference sweep.
The Hillcats opened the game with a bang as
Chase Knott sent a 3-1 pitch over the fence in left center leading off the bottom of the first quickly in front, 1-0.
A three-run second inning gave the Falcons the advantage capitalizing on a couple defensive miscues by RSU. UTPB got three-straight singles to start the frame before taking the lead.
The attention then turned to the starting pitchers as the Hillcats'
Mason Marquette and Chris Cano for the Falcons put on a clinic for local youth on Roosa Elementary Day at the Diamond Sports Complex. Following Knott's home run, Cano retired 11-consecutive batters while Marquette nearly matched that sitting down 10-in-a-row until a Falcon reached via error in the fifth.
RSU had a chance to even the score in the bottom of the fifth as
Blake Gipson and
Zack Ashford delivered back-to-back singles with one out. The Hillcats could not push a run across as the rain started to pour onto the field causing the delay.
After the delay, the Falcons stretched their lead with five runs in the sixth on four hits, chasing Marquette and added a run in the seventh moving in front, 9-1.
Dustin Exford got two runs back for the Hillcats in the seventh on a double that scored pinch hitters
Travis Peet and
Blake Heston.
UTPB closed the sweep, tacking on six runs in the eighth for the 15-4, run-rule decision.
Marquette (4-5) was charged with the loss throwing 5.2 innings allowing eight runs, four earned, on nine hits. Cano (6-2) got the win for the Falcons giving up one earned run on four hits in five innings of work before the delay. Nolan Schattel earned his seventh save of the season as the Hillcats had the potential tying run on deck in the seventh frame.
Rogers State (12-23, 3-15 HC) continues its season Monday with a non-conference tilt at College of the Ozarks in a game that was rescheduled due to weather from earlier this spring. First pitch is slated for 2 p.m.
