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Oklahoma Takes Series in Explosive Back-And-Forth Win Over the Aggies

What seemed like an easy victory turned into a high-scoring nail biter with the Sooners left standing.
Brady Trantham|
Oklahoma's Camden Johnson celebrates with Brendan Brock
Oklahoma's Camden Johnson celebrates with Brendan Brock | Carson Field, Sooners On SI

Winds up to 40-miles per hour blustered across Kimrey Family Stadium. Fielding was going to be difficult, eyeing pop flies and catching them was going to be a chore — unless you were a lefty, hitting looked to be an adventure.

Much like the winds blowing back and forth, the No. 9 Oklahoma Sooners battled the No. 22 Texas A&M Aggies back and forth. The Sooners were more consistent, but the Aggies were explosive with two four-run innings. OU earned their first conference series win after defeating Texas A&M 12-11.

On Saturday, the Sooners (17-3) bats went cold far too often. They even had bases loaded late in the game, only to get one run out of it. Sunday, OU had bases loaded twice and got the insurance they needed in the seventh and eighth innings, resulting in three key runs.

Cord Rager (six strikeouts, five hits, 4.71 ERA) started off great, quickly going 1-2-3 to retire the Aggies in the first inning. The big lefty-pitcher had five strikeouts against the first seven Aggie batters. His play came down to earth quickly shortly after.

The Sooners attacked A&M early with an opening walk to Trey Gambill. Camden Johnson hit a grounder that the Aggies mishandled on the throw, hitting Johnson's helmet, allowing him to advance to second and Gambill to put the first score on the board.

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Jaxton Willits, returning from his one-game suspension after spiking the bat in Friday night's win, earned an RBI-single. He gently placed the bat on the ground as he ran to first. The Aggies got the final found out, down 2-0.

With two on, Gambil grounded out to second base, allowing the lead-off man to score and extend the lead. Two outs didn't phase Johnson, who singled into center field, scoring Kyle Branch. Brenden Brock followed suit, singling just past the shortstop, advancing Johnson to third.

OU wasn't done with the second inning or Aggie starter Aiden Sims. The winds continued to influence the day when Willits popped out into center field. The gusts pushed the ball into shallow right field and second baseman Chris Hacopian was unable to corral the ball, allowing Brock and Johnson to score.

After batting around and pushing across four runs, Alec Blair struck out to end the inning with his team ahead 6-0.

As Texas A&M did all weekend, they continued to respond to any Sooner scoring runs.

Rager struggled in the third, allowing a lead-off double and two singles, to score A&M's first run. Sloppy fielding infected the Sooners with one out — a grounder with the symptoms of a double play to end the inning led to an out at second and a mishandled transfer to allow the batter safe at first.

The lost opportunity led to a pair of scores following a Jake Duer single, matching the Sooners four-run second inning. Rager ended the inning with a strike out but the damage was done as OU led 6-4.

Dayton Tockey, Oklahoma Sooners
Oklahoma first basemen Dayton Tockey | Carson Field, Sooners On SI

Gambill brought back momentum for the Sooners when he hit a two-run home run (Gambill's fourth of the year) with two outs in the fourth. The big hit ended the day for the Aggies starting pitcher — bringing Gavin Lyons out of the bullpen who calmed the Sooners down two batters later. OU led 8-4 after three.

Relief pitcher Jackson Cleveland came on in the fourth. A fielder's choice and an error led to an RBI-single to cut the Sooner lead at 8-5 as the inning came to an end.

The Aggies cut the deficit to two in the fifth following an RBI-single. Fortunately for Oklahoma, A&M's inning ended with a line drive ball that hit the runner for the third out.

In the sixth, Deiten LaChance flied out for a sacrifice RBI, scoring Brock, to give the Sooners more cushion at 9-6.

A&M continued to claw back in the seventh after scoring on a wild pitch from Kadyn Leon.

Trey Gambill, Oklahoma Sooners
Trey Gambill runs to first. | Carson Field, Sooners On SI

But Aggie pitchers had a problem in the seventh, walking two hitters and hitting two more. The chaos led to two Sooner runs to extend the lead to 11-7.

Leon mirrored A&M's pitching struggles in the eighth with bases loaded and a run already scored. A double from Jake Duer tied the game at 11.

With two outs and bases loaded, A&M pitcher Grant Cunningham walked Johnson to put the Sooners ahead at 12-11.

Closer Jason Bodin got the save, retiring the first three Aggie batters in the ninth.

Oklahoma's 16-game home stand comes to an end Tuesday when they travel to Hammond, LA to take on the Southeastern Louisiana Lions for a midweek match on Tuesday. The Sooners will return to the Pelican State to take on LSU for their second SEC weekend series of the season.

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Brady Trantham
BRADY TRANTHAM

Brady Trantham covered the Oklahoma City Thunder as the lead Thunder Insider from 2018 until 2021 for 107.7 The Franchise. During that time, Trantham also helped the station as a fill-in guest personality and co-hosted Oklahoma Sooner postgame shows. Trantham also covered the Thunder for the Norman Transcript and The Oklahoman on a freelance basis. He received his BA in history from the University of Oklahoma in 2014 and a BS in Sports Casting from Full Sail University in 2023. Trantham also founded and hosts the “Through the Keyhole” podcast, covering Oklahoma Sooners football. He was born in Oklahoma and raised as an Air Force brat all over the world before returning to Norman and setting down roots there.

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