No.1 Point Park stays alive with 9-3 win over No. 5 Oakland City (Ind.) at RSC Championship

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio -- No. 1 seed Point Park University stayed alive at the River States Conference Baseball Championship with Saturday afternoon's 9-3 win over No. 5 Oakland City (Ind.) University.

The victory staved off elimination for the Pioneers (38-12), who had taken a loss to No. 4 IU Kokomo just 12 hours earlier in a game that started Friday night and ended after midnight Saturday morning. 

Point Park earned its way to have another matchup with IU Kokomo on Saturday night, but a long weather delay during other games throughout the day has pushed that back to Sunday morning.

The Pioneers will meet the Cougars at 10:00 a.m. for a matchup that will determine the winner of their pod and the second of the two automatic bids to the NAIA national tournament from the RSC. 

Already in with the first of the RSC's two automatic bids is No. 2 IU Southeast, which won the other pod with Saturday night's 13-5 win over WVU Tech. The Grenadiers await the winner of the Point Park-IU Kokomo pod for a winner-take-all RSC Championship final game. 

Point Park needs to beat IU Kokomo twice in order to win the pod, earn the NAIA auto bid and face IU Southeast. IU Kokomo is 2-0 in the championship so far while Point Park is 2-1 and will be eliminated with its next loss. 

If Point Park beats IU Kokomo on Sunday at 10:00 a.m., a second matchup between the teams will take place 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first. 

Point Park's win over Oakland City on Saturday came with solid pitcing from three different arms and nine hits along the way to build the lead. 

Joathan Rivera gave the Pioneers the start they needed as the senior right-hander pitched into the sixth inning with a 4-2 lead. He racked up 10 strikeouts and allowed just three hits and two walks. 

Rivera left a runner stranded at third to end the fifth and keep Point Park ahead, 4-2. That was with his 10th strikeout of the outing. Rivera exited after a groundout and a base hit to start the sixth. That's when Ethan Parker took over.

Parker got out of that inning with a flyout and a runner getting cut down at home on the backend of a double-steal attempt. He worked around a base hit in the seventh with a couple of flyouts. A double play erased a one-out single in the eighth as he finished up his scoreless outing of 2.2 innings.

By that time Point Park had opened up a 9-2 lead thanks to a big inning of five runs in the sixth. Five walks, a hit batter and a couple of big hits added to the scoreboard. Carlos Martinez came through with an RBI base hit, and Omar Morillo drove in two with a double to make the Mighty Oaks pay. 

Martinez was 2 for 4 with a pair of RBIs. Jared Campbell went 2 for 3 with three runs and a couple of walks. Jordon Campbell tripled and scored two runs. He smashed his triple in the fourth and came in on Martinez's single. That pushed the lead to 4-1 and answered Oakland City's tally from the top half of the frame.

Oakland City starter Ben Simmons lasted 3.0 innings giving up six hits and four runs. The Mighty Oaks used five pitchers in the game. Kenneth Rolon pitched the ninth inning for Point Park to finish things off.