June 7, 2004

Former Tiger baseball players do well as seasons come to an end

University of Oklahoma’s Eric Thornton, and Oklahoma State University’s Rusty Ryal, teammates on Cowley County Community College’s 2003 baseball team, had their seasons come to an end as their teams lost in the NCAA Division I baseball regional over the weekend.

Ryal did all he could to prolong the Cowboys’ season in a 12-9, 10-inning season-ending loss to Central Florida Saturday. With OSU trailing 9-6 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Ryal smacked a game tying three-run double.

However, Central Florida’s Ryan Bono hit a game-winning three-run homer in the bottom of the 10th inning to eliminate the Cowboys from the Tallahassee, Fla., Regional.

Ryal went 3-4 with a run batted in and a run scored in the Cowboys’ 7-3 loss to Central Florida in the opening game of the regional, and went 0-5 with a run scored in OSU’s 4-1 win over Bethune Cookman.

In the three games OSU played at the regional, Ryal went 4-13 with two doubles, four runs batted in, and three runs scored. OSU finished the season with a record of 38-24. Florida State went on to defeat Central Florida 19-3 on Sunday, to advance to play in the Super Regional.

Playing in the Oklahoma City Regional, Thornton was one of the Sooners’ most productive hitters. He had two of Oklahoma’s four hits in a 9-1 loss to UCLA in its opening game of the regional played Friday.

Thornton then keyed a 6-1 win over Central Connecticut State on Saturday by blasting his eighth home run of the season in the victory. However, the Sooners’ season came to an end later in the day as they suffered a 17-7 defeat against UCLA. Thornton went 1-4 with a run scored in the loss.

Overall, Thornton went 4-13 with a home run, a run batted in, and two runs scored at the regional. Oklahoma finished the season with a record of 38-24. UCLA went on to lose to Florida 11-0 in the regional championship game.