The Official Blog of OC Athletics
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Click the icon below to watch a video interview with Coach Chuck White previewing the 2009 season.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Video Courtesy of Big Sky Productions
Production by Clinton Corley
Monday, June 09, 2008
Oklahoma Christian baseball players Josh Balch and Jordan Price lead the Midwest City Outlaws with five home runs apiece this summer. Balch swatted three bombs in a two-game span last week.
For the complete story of the players’ recent games, click here.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Oklahoma Christian baseball players Jordan Price and Josh Balch helped the Midwest City Outlaws to second place at the team’s Memorial Day Tournament earlier in the week. Price belted three home runs in the event, while Balch went deep in an 8-4 win over Putnam North.
Price accumulated the third-highest batting average in OC history in 2008 at .437. He led the team with 17 doubles and three triples. Balch hit .286 with five homers and 26 RBIs.
For the complete story of Price and Balch’s weekend, click here.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
In April, Oklahoma Christian University saluted the best and brightest from the year in OC Athletics with the second-annual OCPY Athletic Awards. Click the icon below to watch video excerpts from the awards show.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Click the icon below to watch a highlight package from OC’s season-opening baseball win over Peru State.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Click the icons below to watch highlights of OC’s win over Peru State in Saturday’s season opener. The highlights aired during KFOR’s 6:00 and 10:00 newscasts on Saturday.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Hello OC Baseball Fans,
It has been a few weeks since I last wrote about the status of the new baseball facility and about how our eight-week fall season ended. We are currently in our finals week and all of our players are studying hard to complete their finals and then head home for the holidays.
The construction of the new baseball facility had progressed nicely until this bout of icy weather arrived. I have been working with Jackson Greene, an alumnus of OC and the baseball program, to complete the outfield fencing. Jackson is the owner of Greene Country Fence and has graciously consented to assist us with the design and construction of this large and important phase of our new facility. Once we finish the fence construction, we will paint the fence a ballpark green color; it should be one of the very attractive features of our facility.
The other major project that is underway is the construction of our two dugouts. Mike Hancock, owner/operator of Basement Contractors, is overseeing the construction of this project for us. Last week, Mike and I did the layout for the dugout footings, which were dug and poured on Thursday. As soon as the weather clears up, plumbers will rough in the plumbing and then Mike’s crew will pour the floor, walls and ceiling of both dugouts. Both of these dugouts will be large and spacious enough to accommodate a team and all of their gear. Built directly behind each dugout will be a player dressing facility with restrooms, an athletic training room and a coaches’ dressing room. This will be an outstanding addition to our new facility.
We also are currently working on are the completion of the large netted backstop that will span from dugout to dugout, the design and cost estimate of a large center area of chairback seats, and the arrival and installation of a new inning-by-inning scoreboard sponsored by Arvest Bank.
We ended our fall workouts with a five-game intrasquad series by dividing our team into two teams that were coached by our outfield defensive coach, Aaron White, and our strength and conditioning coach, Brian Madden. Our pitching coach, Jared Smith, handled the pitchers for both teams and yours truly umpired the event; I much prefer coaching to umpiring.
I was encouraged by the talent and effort of all our players. It was an even and competitive series won by the White squad three games to two. The deciding run of the series came in the bottom of the seventh inning of the fifth game; a single by Josh Henry with one out scored the winning run.
After the holiday break, we will return to campus to begin classes and workouts on January 7 in preparation for the February 8 opening of our three-game series with Peru State (Neb.). We hope you will make plans now to be at this historic day as the tradition of baseball is brought back to the OC campus.
Until then, we wish you Happy Holidays and hope that the time with your family and friends is an enjoyable one. Please continue to remember the players and coaching staff in your thoughts and prayers as we work hard to prepare for the upcoming season. Also be praying for the completion of our new facility in time for our season opener. Please keep checking in with me for new program updates as we approach the beginning of the season.
God’s richest blessings for all,
Chuck White
Sunday, October 07, 2007
OC Baseball Fans,
If you happen to drive by our field this week, you’ll see that our grass is really taking off and is very green. I mowed the infield for the first time by hand and it really looks good. It is still a bit bumpy, as is the case with new sod, but we have Martin Lane scheduled to come in on October 15th to top dress the new grass with sand to smooth out the surface.
I delivered our final dugout plans to the contractor on Friday and we hope to be starting their construction in the near future. Mike Hancock has graciously agreed to assist us with the construction of the dugouts and a concrete wall at the base of the backstop that will extend from dugout to dugout.
I also met with baseball alumnus Jackson Greene, a local fence contractor, and he and I will team up on the design and construction of the outfield fencing. The outfield fence will have that old ballpark appearance and feel of vertical wood slats with a small gap between the boards. It reminds me of the early baseball stories from major league parks where they recalled small boys who would stand on the outside of the outfield fence and watch the game through the gaps in the fencing; they called them the “Knot Hole Gang.” The boys would watch and wait with anticipation until a player hit a home run and then would chase the ball down when it came over the fence.
The team had a six-inning intrasquad scrimmage on Friday, our first since our scrimmage against Northern Oklahoma College. I was encouraged by our hitting. I feel like our pitchers also are improving, but I thought they threw far too many pitches. We need our pitchers to be more aggressive early in the count and get ahead of the hitters. I like our aggressiveness on the bases and the overall team speed. We plan on scrimmaging again on Monday and finishing up practice on Thursday before we break for fall break. Please check back again with us next week as we continue to update our progress on our team and facility.
Take care and God bless,
Chuck White
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Hey baseball fans,
Overall, it was a fairly routine week. We worked a lot on hitting this week because they were doing some renovations to the Edmond Santa Fe field that we are renting for practice until our field is ready.
Speaking of our new field, we drilled the holes for the backstop poles and concreted them in on Friday. We also concreted our left-field foul pole and was going to concrete the right-field pole when I discovered that my geometry was off by about 12 inches. I am going to have a friend come back and re-drill the hole. We cannot have bad placement on our right field foul pole; it would bug me to the point I would not be able to sleep at night! We are only going to have one chance to build this field right so we must do a quality job.
Our new sod has really jumped in the last few days. We had to mow the infield and outfield twice this past week. It is wonderful to see green on the field. The man that I hired to laser-grade the field will be in tomorrow to laser the new infield material and also top-dress the new sod to smooth it out. I hope to break ground on the dugouts and the fencing in the very near future.
I had a surprise visit from former OC All-American Clint Vaughn on Friday. Clint was driving through town with his family and stopped in to check out our progress on the field; it was great to see him.
Thanks for checking in on us and please keep coming back for more updates. Have a great week and God bless.
Chuck White
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Hey Baseball Fans,
Friday was a big day for OC; baseball came alive and we performed well in our first scrimmage. It was a marathon; we started at 4:00 pm and played 21 innings straight.
We divided the 21 innings into three seven-inning groups and fared pretty well with such a young group. We lost the first seven 4-2, won the second seven 6-4 and tied the third seven 3-3.
As coaches, we saw a lot that we have to work on, but we were very encouraged by what we observed. Our pitchers all did well overall. We need to eliminate walks and stay ahead in the count. Coach Smith has done a good job with them and was encouraged by the results from his staff.
Offensively, we hit the ball well. We were aggressive at the plate for the most part and hit line drives and sharp ground balls. We hit two long balls on the day; Josh Balch hit a laser for our first tater and Tyler Gipson hit a towering two-run shot in the second seven innings. We missed far too many signals, but I am not worried; that will take care of itself with time.
Defensively, we booted the ball in a few crucial situations, but with practice that will improve also. Our players just need to understand how much quicker the game is at the collegiate level and adapt their play to speed of the game.
All things considered, our coaching staff was pleased with what we saw, but by no means are we satisfied. We have two more weeks of practice before our next scrimmage and I expect significant progress in our next competition.
Probably the biggest encouragement I experienced with our team on Friday was the camaraderie they have already developed in the short time we have been together. As the team spirit and camaraderie grows, I believe good things will happen. We have a group of outstanding young men and I have really enjoyed being around them.
The field is coming along nicely. I mowed the infield and dugout wings for the first time on Sunday afternoon and it looked good. It is still bumpy as all new sod is. It will just take some time to top dress the grass and get the dirt surface where we want it, but it is beginning to take shape.
I called a pipe company on Monday and shared what we needed with the yard manager. He was kind enough not only to donate some pipe for our backstop, but also to deliver the pipe for free. God is good; He does provide.
Thanks for checking in with us this week and I hope that you will continue to our website each week as I update my baseball blog. Please keep the coaches in your prayers as we lead these young men and also remember our players as they work hard in the classroom and mature as quality young men and baseball players.
God’s richest blessings to all,
Chuck White
Head Baseball Coach
Oklahoma Christian University
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
This week’s podcast features head baseball coach Chuck White in advance of Friday’s scrimmage at Northern Oklahoma-Enid, which marks the “unofficial” debut of the revived baseball program.
Subscribe to Eagle Eye Podcasts
Monday, September 17, 2007
Mike Thomas, an OC student who interns in the athletic marketing and communications office, recently produced a video package about OC’s new baseball team. Click the icon below to watch the video.