Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Suffer First Loss at Hands of Arizona

ARLINGTON, TX – After a successful opening day in which they blanked Auburn to start the season on a winning note, Oklahoma got back to action on Saturday night with a collision against the No. 13 Arizona Wildcats.

Unfortunately for Oklahoma, things would not go as well in game two of the second day of the State Farm College Baseball Showdown at Globe Life Field as the Sooners were blasted by a hot Wildcats lineup by a final score of 14-4.

Getting the ball for the second contest of the campaign was right-handed junior college transfer David Sandlin, who started strong before running into some trouble in the third.

The Wildcats’ bats, which had mustered just one baserunner in the first two innings, sent 10 men to the plate to score five runs on two two-run triples and a sacrifice fly.

The Sooners, however, had a quick response for the sudden 5-0 hole, plating two runs in the top of the fourth on a two-out, two-run single by right fielder Trent Brown.

Trent Brown puts the #Sooners on the board!

💻 https://t.co/ZA9Pn6C6Ui @FloBaseball pic.twitter.com/xF90EyYxYa
— Oklahoma Baseball (@OU_Baseball) February 20, 2022

Sandlin bounced back in the bottom of the inning with a 1-2-3 frame, including a pair of strikeouts before Oklahoma inched a tad closer in the fifth on a Tanner Tredaway sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to 5-3.

👀 @Sandman__29

💻 https://t.co/ZA9Pn6C6Ui @FloBaseball pic.twitter.com/hiMORBDQFC
— Oklahoma Baseball (@OU_Baseball) February 20, 2022

But the momentum flipped back to the Arizona dugout in the bottom of the frame with the Wildcats plating two more runs on back-to-back RBI doubles by Tyler Casagrande and Blake Paugh to push the lead back out to 7-3.

Sandlin exited the inning after recording one out and allowing a single, meaning one of the two runs was charged to him with the other going to big right-hander Ben Abram, who relieved him out of the bullpen.

"I thought he settled in good," coach Skip Johnson said of Sandlin. "They (Arizona) did a good job of two-strike hitting in the third and it kind of imploded. We misread a ball in the outfield, let a ball fall in front of us, that's the game of baseball. And then all of a sudden it imploded. They took the momentum of the game. And when you take the momentum of the game, it's hard to regain."

The score remained there into the seventh when Oklahoma shortstop Peyton Graham ripped a double into the left-center gap to get things started.

Blake Robertson then flew out to move Graham to third before a Tredaway groundout to shortstop brought Graham home and made it a 7-4 ballgame.

It didn’t take Arizona long to get that run back as right fielder Tanner O’Tremba pounded a solo homer to left field to open up the bottom half and make the score 8-4.

We got a dude 💪 #BearDown

📺 @FloBaseball
💻 https://t.co/kQiV041obe pic.twitter.com/Dtb4PaNHoD
— Arizona Baseball (@ArizonaBaseball) February 20, 2022

The Wildcats were very far from done, as they tacked on another six runs in the seventh to turn the game into a laugher at 14-4.

"We got back into the game, until the same thing happened," Johnson said. "With two strikes, they (Arizona) hit a ball that finds the hole, a flare, and all of a sudden it implodes again and you've got to go to the bullpen. That's the power of momentum and putting at-bats together. The job is to keep the momentum in your dugout from the very get go."

From there, Arizona reliever Josh Randall finished things off by recording the final six outs to secure the win.

For a team with a lot of new faces, the hope now for Johnson and company is that the loss will serve as a learning moment moving forward.

"You always learn from stuff like that," Johnson said about the loss. "It's the best time to learn."

The loss drops Oklahoma to 1-1 on the young season and puts some pressure on the Sooners to find a way to win in the weekend finale against Michigan on Sunday night.