of the Tribune
It just wasn’t Brent Weaver’s week.
The Oklahoma City slugger brought 37 home runs to the NAIA World Series, one shy of the NAIA single-season record set by Lewis-Clark State’s Beau Mills in 2007.
And that’s where he remained. With Weaver struggling, the powerful Stars collapsed offensively and were eliminated with a 14-4 loss to Lubbock Christian on Wednesday afternoon.
Weaver credited the Chaps’ Jakob Cunningham with holding him in check in his final collegiate game. The first baseman went went 0-for-3 with a walk.
“You got to tip your hat to Lubbock’s pitcher,” he said. “He kept us off-balance all day. He didn’t leave a whole lot of pitches over the plate. He just did a great job of messing our timing up.”
The closest Weaver came to belting a ball out of Harris Field was in Saturday’s game against Lewis-Clark State.
In his second at-bat, the 6-foot-1, 195-pounder drove a ball to deep center field. But it died in the glove of the Warriors’ Kris Miller, who made a leaping against-the-wall grab.
Weaver did not record an extra-base hit in the Series. He went 4-for-18 with two walks.
Weaver didn’t think the pressure of chasing the home run record got to him.
“I don’t know, I tried not to think about it too much when I was up there,” he said. “I got some pitches I could do it on. I got some pitches I could hit. I just might have been overswinging a bit and it didn’t happen. It’s just one of those things, I guess.”
Oklahoma City coach Denney Crabaugh doesn’t believe anxiety got to his standout hitter, adding that Weaver tried to boost the Stars with tools other than the long ball.
“I just think there was some good pitching up here,” Crabaugh said. “The thing about Brent Weaver is he wants to do well for the team. If he ends up getting a home run, that’s great. If it’s a flare, fine. If it’s with his glove, fine. All he wants to do is win baseball games.”
Having begun his collegiate career as a pitcher at Oklahoma State, Weaver hit 61 home runs and racked up 180 RBI in two seasons with the Stars.
Though Oklahoma City’s season didn’t end ideally — they finished third in the Series for the second straight year — Weaver will still remember 2009 as a memorable campaign.
“We just had a great year,” he said. “It didn’t end the way we wanted it to but we still had a great year and had fun all year doing it.”
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Jones may be contacted at sports@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2268.
