Southern Nazarene dealt Oklahoma Baptist a costly 10-5 Sooner Athletic Conference baseball loss Monday as the Bison enter their last two conference series of the season.


The setback pushed the Bison to 10-14 and into an eighth-place tie with Oklahoma Christian with six games left. The top six teams advance to the conference tournament.

Lubbock Christian and Oklahoma City have locked up the first two spots and Wayland Baptist and Southern Nazarene have the upper hand for the next two slots. With six games left, Northwestern is at 12-12, USAO is 11-13, Rogers State is 12-15 and the Bison and OC are scrambling to climb ahead of two of those squads.

OBU and USAO play this week while Northwestern has St. Gregory's, Oklahoma Christian has Mid-America Christian and Rogers State is idle in SAC play.

In the final week, OBU plays St. Gregory's, USAO plays Northwestern and Rogers State finishes up with Oklahoma Christian. Northwestern, Rogers State and Oklahoma Christian all have tiebreaker advantages over the Bison.

OBU got out to a 1-0 lead Monday when in the first inning Billy Jarka got the first of hit four hits, stole second and scored on a double by Anthony Ramirez.

But SNU got three in the third and two in the fifth for a 5-1 lead.

Arin Fowble drilled a three-run home run in the sixth to narrow the gap to 5-4 but Mac Gordon had a two-run homer in the seventh for a 7-4 SNU lead.

Fowble drew a bases-loaded walk to force in a run in the bottom of the seventh, but SNU wriggled the hook after that.

The Crimson Storm scored three in the eighth, including a two-run home run by Shain Stoner.

OBU had 11 hits in the game, including four by Jarka and two by Ramirez. Blake Gallacher, 5-3, took the pitching loss.

The Bison play at USAO in Chickasha Thursday at 3 p.m. and have a doubleheader Saturday at 1 p.m. against the Drovers.