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Western Illinois University Athletics

Preston Church.jpg
0
Western Illinois WIU 0-6
5
Winner Oklahoma State OSU 7-4
Western Illinois WIU
0-6
0
Final
5
Oklahoma State OSU
7-4
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Western Illinois WIU 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 1
Oklahoma State OSU 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 3 X 5 5 2

W: Freeman (2-0) L: Church, Preston (0-2)

Game Recap: Baseball | | WIU Athletic Communications

Career Day for Preston Church in Series Finale Loss to No. 10 Oklahoma State

Six innings pitched and six strikeouts was not enough as Western fell 5-0 on Sunday (Mar. 1).

AUBURN, Ala. - A career day for sophomore lefty Preston Church was not enough for Western Illinois baseball as the Leathernecks dropped the series finale to Oklahoma State 5-0.

Church pitched a career-best six innings with six strikeouts, also a career high, but ended up getting the loss, dropping to 0-2 this season. Western falls to 0-6.

"Overall I was very pleased with our pitching staff this weekend," said head coach Ryan Brownlee. "They made some nice adjustments from last weekend and we got three quality starts. Preston did a great job of bouncing back from last week and we also played quality defense. Good competition shows you what you need to improve on and we will have to improve on our two-out RBI situation to become the type of offense we need to be." 

The game opened as a pitchers duel with Church going inning-for-inning with Oklahoma State's Michael Freeman. Back-to-back walks and a two-out single in the bottom of the fifth gave OSU a 1-0 lead. The Cowboys added to it in the sixth when they hit a one-out triple followed up by a single from Conor Costello.  

Sam Cottingham-Beard relieved Church to start the seventh in his second appearance as a Leatherneck. Cottingham-Beard and Pete Minella worked a scoreless bottom half. However, Western's eighth inning woes continued as the Cowboy's manufactured a three-run eighth making the score 5-0.

With two outs in the top of the ninth, WIU loaded the bases, but would fail to score yet again as Oklahoma State's Koda Glover finished off the game to complete the shutout and the two-game sweep of Western.

"Oklahoma State's pitcher did a nice job," said coach Brownlee. "Not overpowering, but with the way his fastball moved we needed to have a better approach. He was very deceptive and we didn't do a good enough job at the plate." 

Next action for the Purple and Gold will be against the University of Evansville this weekend, March 6-8. The Leathernecks and Purple Aces are currently scheduled for a four-game series in Evansville, Indiana.
 
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