Make no mistake about it. Oral Roberts comes into the Eugene Super Regional as the underdog. But as winners of 39-of-42, the Golden Eagles don’t believe that should be the case.
And they could be right.
ORU has won 21 straight games and their lost defeat came on April 22 when it lost 4-2 to North Dakota State. Overall, the Golden Eagles possess a record of 49-11 with wins over the likes of Oklahoma State, Washington and traditional college baseball power Dallas Baptist as they won the Stillwater Regional last week.
So what’s the secret to their success?
Having two All-Americans doesn’t hurt the cause. Centerfielder Jonah Cox became Oral Roberts’ first All-American since 2008 with his ungodly .424 batting average. He’s third in the country with 106 hits that included 10 home runs, 64 runs batted in, eight triples, and 16 doubles. Cox also has 27 stolen bases and was caught just three times.
The second All-American is closer Cade Denton with his 15 saves and 1.65 earned run average.
But according to Golden Eagles coach Ryan Folmer, the collective whole and not the individuals is what makes this team special.
“It’s an easy group to coach. You want to be playing this time of year and you want to keep playing,” he said. “We went on the road in what seems like forever ago and we talked about how going on the road has a chance to galvanize your team.”
Oral Roberts has been on the road for three straight weeks and it seems to suit them.
Coming to PK Park and playing in front of about 4,000 Duck fans will be the champion of the Summit League’s biggest challenge to date. Both schools will be battling for their first College World Series appearance in their programs’ history.
If Oregon wants to go to Omaha, it’ll take more than keeping Cox off base. Nearly every ORU starting position player hits over .300 and they have a team average of .324.
Neither team has announced their starting pitchers, but the Golden Eagles have a trio of pitchers that have started the majority of their weekend series.
Brooks Fowler comes in with a 9-1 record and a 3.11 ERA. The sophomore started the regional-clinching game against Dallas Baptist and he went five innings, giving up four runs and seven hits.
Harley Gollert, a redshirt senior from Canada, comes in with a 10-1 mark and a 4.00 ERA, but in his most recent appearance, Washington roughed him up a bit. He didn’t get out of the first inning as he gave up six runs and seven hits in 2/3 of an inning.
The third starter is Jakob Hall with his 8-3 record and 3.25 ERA. He started the regional-opening game against Oklahoma State, but went just 2.2 innings due to an extended weather delay.