Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Take Rubber Match Against Northwestern State

The Sooners were led by left-handed starter Chazz Martinez, who dominated the Demons with seven scoreless innings and 14 strikeouts.

Make it another winning weekend for the Oklahoma Sooners.

Oklahoma met with the Northwestern State Demons on Sunday evening in the rubber match of their three-game weekend set, with the Sooners prevailing with a 5-1 win behind excellent starting pitching.

Getting the start on the bump for Skip Johnson was left-hander Chazz Martinez, who was looking to build on a great Sooners debut last Sunday against Michigan.

The JUCO transfer would do that and then some, completely dominating the Demons with seven shutout frames allowing only three hits and striking out an absurd 14 batters.

Oklahoma got the scoring started early in the second with freshman second baseman Jackson Nicklaus connecting on a two-run home run to the right center bullpen - the first of his young collegiate career.

𝐉𝐚𝐱‼

First career blast goes into the OU bullpen!#LaunchPad pic.twitter.com/TMDURfgnb3

— Oklahoma Baseball (@OU_Baseball) February 28, 2022

Third baseman Cade Horton added onto the OU lead the following inning with a bloop RBI single to bring the designated hitter Blake Robertson in to score.

A couple innings later, shortstop Peyton Graham got in on the fun, smashing his second home run of the season to extend the advantage to 4-0 Sooners.

𝐏𝐆‼@PeytonGraham6 | #LaunchPad

☄️ https://t.co/GliHPxrKAm pic.twitter.com/omzXGU1xzC

— Oklahoma Baseball (@OU_Baseball) February 28, 2022

Oklahoma then tacked on another in the seventh on a sacrifice fly off the bat of right fielder Sebastian Orduno to hold a 5-0 lead heading to the eighth.

Right-handed reliever Griffin Miller would run into some trouble there allowing Northwestern State to load the bases with one out, but was able to successfully limit the damage to just a run with a sacrifice fly followed by a groundout.

Miller then sat the Demons down in order in the ninth to close out the 5-1 victory and clinch the series.

The win pushes the Sooners to 5-2 on the young season and gives them some needed momentum heading into the daunting challenge that next weekend presents.

Without a midweek contest this week, Oklahoma will now turn their attention to the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic beginning Friday against LSU at Minute Maid Park in Houston.