Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Roll Pacific to Close Weekend

NORMAN – Ended the weekend on a high note.

After dropping a high-scoring affair to Lamar on Friday night, Oklahoma finished up the weekend at L. Dale Mitchell Park with a collision against Pacific.

The Sooners got back on track on Saturday afternoon cruising by the Tigers with a final score of 10-2.

"The offense kind of got rolling," head coach Skip Johnson said postgame. "Everything presented itself, and we executed the things that we need to execute."

Getting the starting nod for the weekend finale was right-hander David Sandlin, who would turn in one of his strongest outings of the season.

The JUCO transfer tossed six rock solid innings allowing only one run and five hits while striking out five.

Five K's for Sandman.

💻 https://t.co/NvCzJIwQ8f pic.twitter.com/BGBxaae1n8
— Oklahoma Baseball (@OU_Baseball) April 16, 2022

"I thought his breaking ball was really good," Johnson said about Sandlin. "Fastball command wasn't as good as it has been, but his breaking ball was really good."

Oklahoma didn’t wait long to get the scoring started, with the piping-hot Brett Squires ripping a single to right field to score Cade Horton in the second.

Hudson Polk then drove in Squires with an RBI double to have the Sooners holding a 2-0 lead after two frames.

Polk poked a double to score Squires! pic.twitter.com/gw7At1xRYA
— Oklahoma Baseball (@OU_Baseball) April 16, 2022

The Tigers cut that lead in half two innings later in the fourth with catcher Jacob Weiss singling to left field to plate Pacific’s first run.

But, now with the lead down to one run, the Oklahoma offense responded with their biggest inning of the day in the bottom half.

The Sooners struck for four runs in the turn at bat, with Polk getting it started with an RBI triple.

𝐇𝐮𝐝𝐝𝐲‼ A 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞!@HudsonPolk
💻 https://t.co/NvCzJIwQ8f pic.twitter.com/gDyUO3gPS9
— Oklahoma Baseball (@OU_Baseball) April 16, 2022

Polk then came across on a groundout before Tanner Tredaway ballooned the lead out with a two-run double plating both Peyton Graham and Blake Robertson. The Sooners led 6-1 through four.

Polk finished the day just a home run short of the cycle.

"For him, you know he's got a guy who's really good in front of him (Crooks)," Johnson said about Polk. "When you're in that role, you don't 'take advantage of your opportunities,' what you've got to do is just keep playing the game. When they go out there and try to take advantage of their opportunities, they put undo pressure on themselves. And they try too hard.

"He works extremely hard. He's one of our leaders on our leadership council which is really good because he comes to work every day."

OU tacked on another the following inning with Squires coming around on a wild pitch to make the Oklahoma advantage 7-1 through 5.

The Tigers would add on one more run in the seventh to inch a little closer, but the Sooners weren't done scoring either.

In the eighth, Tredaway, Crooks and Kendall Pettis all worked themselves around the bases to extend the OU lead to 10-2.

Carter Campbell and Carson Atwood closed out the game in relief of Sandlin recording the final nine outs to finish off the ballgame.

"Getting Campbell back out there after, I mean he hadn't been hit that hard all year until last night," Johnson said. "Getting Campbell back out there, even though he gave up a couple hits and gave up a run, getting him back out there to finish the inning (seventh) was really good and should boost his confidence a little bit."

The win moves Oklahoma to 21-13 on the season and is their third in the last four games.

The Sooners will now get a couple of days to rest up before hosting Wichita State on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. back at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman.