TULSA, Okla. – The Utah baseball team fell 4-3 to Oral Roberts to open the 2018 season on Friday afternoon.
Utah rallied from an early 3-0 deficit to tie the game at 3-3 after two runs in the fifth and a run in the sixth. The Golden Eagles broke a 3-3 tie in the bottom of the eighth inning for the win.
The Utes were led at the plate by
DaShawn Keirsey, Jr., who went 2-for-4 on the day. In his Utah debut,
Erick Migueles hit a two-run home run to put Utah on the board.
Chandler Anderson and
Davis Delorefice also had hits.
On the mound, junior
Kyle Robeniol made his Utah debut, throwing three innings and allowing three runs on three hits with two walks and a strikeout. Josh Tedeschi pitched a career-high 4 2/3 innings and recorded the loss, allowing one run on three hits with two walks and two strikeouts in the loss.
Trenton Stoltz pitched the final 1/3 of an inning.
Keirsey got the game started on the right foot for the Utes with a single up the middle and also earned his first stolen base of the year before Oral Roberts got out of the inning unscathed.
ORU got on the board in the second with a two-run home run. The Golden Eagles increased their lead to 3-0 in the third after a leadoff double scored on a sacrifice fly later in the inning.
Migueles hit his first home run of the year in the fifth inning after
Dominic Foscalina reached on an error to cut the lead to 3-2. Delorefice and Keirsey also singled in the inning before ORU got a pair of strikeouts to end the threat. The Utes tied the game in the sixth, 3-3, as Anderson greeted a new pitcher with a double to right center to lead off the inning and came around to score on an error on a bunt by
Wade Gulden.
A two-out double in the eighth spurred the go-ahead run for Oral Roberts, as the next batter singled in a run to put the Golden Eagles in the lead.
Utah and Oral Roberts play game two of the series on Saturday, Feb. 17, at 2:00 p.m. CT/1:00 p.m. MT. Live video is at
http://www.oruathletics.com/broadcast/mkfofp.