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Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Rally to Take Down Baylor With Grand Slams

OU trailed 5-1, but Tanner Tredaway hit a grand slam and Peyton Graham hit another to win it in the ninth.
John E. Hoover|
Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Rally to Take Down Baylor With Grand Slams
Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Rally to Take Down Baylor With Grand Slams

Down four runs with two out in the eighth inning seems like a grand time to start a rally.

Oklahoma did just that on Saturday at L. Dale Mitchel Park, rallying with a grand slam in the eighth and then finishing it with another in the ninth to beat Baylor 9-5.

Tanner Tredaway erased a 5-1 deficit with a two-out slam off Baylor pitcher Matt Voelker in the eighth, and after the Sooners loaded the bases against Voelker in the ninth, Peyton Graham greeted Hambleton Oliver with a first-pitch grand slam to end it.

“That was probably the coolest thing I've ever experienced here at OU,” Graham said. “Tredaway set the tone early, so it was pretty neat to follow that up. It was my first time ever hitting a grand slam and a walk-off. I think early on we struggled today. Later in the game we started communicating a little better about the pitchers, and stuff started falling for us.”

The late-inning fireworks were the only hits of the day for both Tredaway and Graham as OU improved to 14-7 overall and 2-0 in Big 12 Conference play, while Baylor fell to 11-11 and 0-2.

“It’s baseball at its best right there,” Oklahoma head coach Skip Johnson said. “It’s exciting for our club to be down and come back and win the game the way we won the game because that should build some momentum for us. The thing I was most proud of were the quality at bats in the bottom of the ninth. We gave ourselves a chance to (score) in the seventh there, and for it to come through in the ninth was even bigger.”

“I am glad that one was my first for sure,” Tredaway said. “I felt like my timing was a little off early in the game and told myself before that at-bat, I am going to be on time, I am going to be early. He had been throwing a bunch of first pitch strikes. I was ready to go and was on time that time. Honestly, it kind of surprised me a little bit. I was just trying to think middle-of-the-field and keep my normal approach. I think the timing part of it is really what gave me the edge on that pitch.”

Baylor got to OU starter David Sandlin single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, then scored twice in the eighth off Jaret Godman.

Ben Abram (1-0) pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth for his first win of the season.

Cade Horton went 2-for-4, and Diego Muniz was 2-for-3 with the other RBI for the Sooners, who finish the series Sunday at 2 p.m. OU won Friday's opener 5-3.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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