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Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Pitching Falters in 14-11 Loss to Lamar

The two teams combined for 25 runs and 32 hits in a high-scoring affair in Norman on Friday night.
Josh Callaway|
Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Pitching Falters in 14-11 Loss to Lamar
Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Pitching Falters in 14-11 Loss to Lamar

NORMAN – A rough night for the pitching staff. 

Looking to run their win streak to three straight after a decisive win over Pacific on Thursday, Oklahoma returned to action on home soil for a matchup with the Lamar Cardinals out of the WAC.

On a warm night in Norman, it was a game full of offensive fireworks with the Cardinals coming out on top 14-11 at L. Dale Mitchell Park. 

"When you have the wind blowing out and an astro-turf field that's really hard, that's gonna happen," head coach Skip Johnson said about the high-scoring nature of the game. "

Getting the Friday night starting nod, as he has all season, was Sooners ace Jake Bennett - who would have one of his worst outings of the year.

The normally-reliable Bennett was significantly knocked around in this one, giving up nine hits and seven runs (one unearned) and failing to complete five innings.

Down 7-0 in the fifth, Oklahoma would start to show some signs of life offensively putting up a crooked number.

Right fielder Brett Squires put OU on the board and back in the game with one big swing - a three-run homer to left field to suddenly make it a 7-3 ballgame.

"I think it's just getting him healthy and back in the swing of things," Johnson said about Squires' hot stretch. "Trying to put him in situations where he's going to succeed, and he's taking hold of it."

Blake Robertson would later add another run with an RBI groundout to have the Sooners right back in the thick of things at 7-4.

But, unfortunately for Oklahoma, the OU bullpen didn’t have a much better fate than Bennett against the Cardinals offense.

Lamar struck for five runs in the sixth off of Ben Abram and Carter Campbell to balloon the lead out to 12-4.

In the fifth and sixth innings, the Cardinals scored nine runs and had an absurd 12 hits in just those two frames alone.

Wallace Clark got one of those runs back in the bottom of the inning with a two-out RBI single, but the Sooners were still well-behind at 12-5.

After Lamar got another run in the top of the seventh, Oklahoma's offense managed to strike for three more in the bottom half. 

Jimmy Crooks knocked in one on an RBI double with Tanner Tredaway and later Crooks coming around to score on two wild pitches. The Cardinals' lead was lessened, but still comfortable at 13-8. 

After the Cardinals added yet another run in the eighth, their sixth straight turn at bat scoring at least one, the Sooners offense would keep the rally going. 

With runners on first and second and two outs, Tredaway pounded a three-run blast to left field to slice the deficit in half at 14-11. 

"They were resilient from the seventh inning on tonight," Johnson said. "They started playing offense like we're capable of doing."

But, that would be the end of the offense as neither team scored in the ninth to end the game with Lamar winning it 14-11. 

The loss drops Oklahoma to 20-13 on the season.

"You can't dwell on it," Johnson said about the loss. "In this game here, you got flush it and get on. That's what baseball is."

The Sooners will next wrap up the weekend against Pacific on Saturday morning at 11:00 a.m. back at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman. 

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Josh Callaway
JOSH CALLAWAY

Josh has been with AllSooners since June of 2021 after spending the previous year with Sooners Wire via USA TODAY Sports. He is also a high school sports broadcaster for the Oklahoma Sports Network. You can follow him on Twitter at @JoshMCallaway.

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