SW Indiana News

Baseball Travels to University of Evansville for Fall Scrimmage

On October 22, the Mighty Oaks baseball team traveled to Evansville to play the Purple Aces of the University of Evansville. In a sixteen inning scrimmage the Mighty Oaks got the opportunity to compete against a NCAA Division 1 program.

The baseball squad played coach Andy Lasher's alma mater, who played for the Purple Aces in 2012 and 2013. "I wanted our guys to get challenged by good competition this fall, after playing a lot of intersquads this fall I think it was good to play against this really good ballclub," said Lasher.

The baseball program came of a good 2022 Spring season with a 31-23 overall record and an 11-11 record in conference play. They also competed in the River States Conference Tournament as well as the NCCAA Mideast Regional Tournament.

The Mighty Oaks coaching staff got to see a lot of their new players compete against outside competition for the first time. Early in the game, the difference between NCAA D1 and NAIA baseball was shown. "I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting to go out there and beat them. I think overall our pitching did really well, which was good to see," Lasher explained. The Mighty Oaks who used a majority of their pitching staff did a good job attacking the hitters and battled their way through a quality Evansville lineup.

"Our defense showed some inexperience and our offense started off struggling against some very good pitchers, but I think with time and hard work we will get to the point where we need to be," said Lasher.

In the later innings of the scrimmage, the Mighty Oaks showed some grit and kept their heads up. A lead-off double by freshman JT Smallwood was followed by an error in Evansville's infield before Chase Christie put the first three runs on the board for Oakland City with a three-run homerun to the opposite field.

With the Fall season coming close to its ending, the Mighty Oaks baseball team will wrap up their Fall with a so-called Fall World Series, where three teams, drafted by some of the seniors will compete for bragging rights in an intersquad series.

Original source can be found here.