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LEWISTON, Idaho
– Dustin Williams silenced the bats of No. 3 California Baptist (48-14), as
he struck out six in nine innings, helping No. 6 Oklahoma City (50-14) to an
8-0 win in Game 4 of the Avista-NAIA World Series from Harris Field.
Williams becomes the third pitcher in the last four years of the World
Series to throw a complete-game shutout.
“He (Williams) was getting
ahead of the hitters and able to throw all his pitches in any of the
counts,” said Oklahoma City head coach Denney Crabaugh. “He was tough to
handle. It was huge that he went the full game to save our bullpen tonight.”
Oklahoma City moves on to face the winner of No. 7 Embry-Riddle (Fla.)
and No. 2 Cumberland (Tenn.) on Monday at 3 p.m. PDT. California Baptist
drops into the double-elimination losers’ bracket and plays No. 10 Tennessee
Wesleyan on Saturday at Noon.
Oklahoma City’s Chad Carman connected
for his 14th home run of the year, a solo shot in the second
inning. It was the game’s first hit of the game. The Stars extended their
lead to 2-0 in the fifth inning courtesy of a walk, a balk, a sacrifice bunt
and a ground-out. Garrett Regan walked to lead off the inning and came home
on a Mark Purser ground-out.
In the seventh inning, Scott Dalrymple
executed a sacrifice bunt squeeze to score Regan. At that point, Oklahoma
City led 3-0.
With the Stars producing ample offense, the game still
belonged to Williams. The senior from Norman, Okla., entered the game with a
5.22 ERA allowing 57 runs in 91 1/3 innings. On this night, he was
spectacular. The shutout was his second of the year and he improved to 13-2
overall. He gave up just six hits while walking four.
Williams gave
up a harmless single through three innings and was cruising into the fourth.
At that point, the Lancers put two on base, with nobody out and failed to
score. The key defensive play was when Matt Marnati was tagged out at home
after a double by Brian Sharp. Williams locked down after that and didn’t
allow a base runner past second base through the game’s final innings.
Brian Fisher broke open the floodgates in the ninth inning with a
bases-clearing double down the left-field line. His 3-run RBI extended the
Stars lead to 7-0. Matt Presley added an RBI-single.
Carman finished
his day going 3-for-3 with one RBI and one run scored. Three other Stars
produced two hits.
Drew Madrigal gutted out 8 2/3 innings for
California Baptist. He gave up eight earned runs on nine hits. He struck out
four batters and walked four.
Garrett Rau was the offensive fireplug
for the Lancers going 2-for-4 from the dish.
GAME NOTES:
Since 2003, the No. 6 seed improves to 2-6 in the Opening Game of the World
Series… Oklahoma City improves to 31-21 in all-time World Series play… The
Stars have now won seven straight First Round games… Playing in its first
World Series since 1997, California Baptist falls to 2-3 all-time…
California Baptist entered the game averaging 8.6 runs per game, which
ranked 13th in the country… After 16 combined errors in the first
three games of the day, this contest was played defensively without any
miscues… With its win, the Stars are now 50-14 and have won at least 50
games in each of the last 12 seasons… The shutout was the first suffered by
California Baptist this season.
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