Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Knock Off Wichita State
NORMAN – A win in the final midweek home game of the season.
After closing out the weekend with a dominant win over Pacific, Oklahoma returned to action on Tuesday night for a midweek clash with the Wichita State Shockers for the second time this season.
Just as they did in their first meeting of the season back in February, the Sooners came out on top over the American Conference foe with a 9-5 final score.
"I think the biggest thing for us, to me, was we played offense tonight," head coach Skip Johnson said postgame. "We separated balls from strikes."
Getting the start for Skip Johnson’s club was left-hander Braden Carmichael, who would have a short evening in his sixth start of the season.
Carmichael would work only two innings allowing four hits and two runs while striking out three, ending his night with a no-decision.
"Well, he pitched against them last time (back in February)," Johnson said of why Carmichael's outing was on the shorter end. "They kind of knew what was going to happen to him.
"We tried to sneak him through the whole lineup one time."
Trailing 2-0 in the fourth, the Oklahoma bats would come alive and tie the game on a Blake Robertson RBI double followed by a sacrifice fly from Diego Muniz.
The score remained 2-2 into the sixth when the Shockers managed to jump back in front striking for three runs off of Carson Atwood and Jaret Godman - all of which going unearned.
But, despite the momentum seemingly being heavily in the Wichita State dugout, the Sooners would respond right back in the bottom half of the sixth with a monster inning.
With the bases loaded and nobody out, Muniz got the scoring started coming through with a clutch two-run single to slice the deficit down to 5-4. OU was far from done.
Jimmy Crooks followed Muniz with a run-scoring knock of his own to even the game at five apiece.
Oklahoma then manufactured three more runs with Cade Horton plating a run on a groundout, Crooks scoring on a wild pitch and Brett Squires taking home on a delayed double steal.
Now leading by three runs, the Sooners still weren’t done as Tanner Tredaway picked up an RBI single to wrap up a seven-run inning for Oklahoma and give them a 9-5 lead.
"It started with the at-bat of Tredaway going 0-2 to a single up the middle," Johnson said of the big sixth inning. "That's what kind of got it rolling a little bit. And they started separating balls from strikes really at a high level."
From there, the OU bullpen did the job with Chazz Martinez, Nicholas Andrews, Jett Lodes and Trevin Michael recording the final nine outs to finish the job.
The win improves Oklahoma to 22-13 on the season and gives the team a little momentum heading back on the road riding a two-game winning streak.
"We try to treat every game like it's a Friday night game," Johnson said. "You got to win your midweek games to get into a regional. And our schedule speaks for itself."
The Sooners will return to Big 12 play next with a three-game series against Kansas beginning on Friday night in Lawrence, KS.