OU Baseball: Braden Davis Excels as Oklahoma Beats TCU in Big 12 Tourney

The top-seeded Sooners got a stellar performance from their left-handed ace as they advance into Thursday's round against Kansas.

Braden Davis / OU Athletics

Oklahoma’s postseason got off to a terrific start on Wednesday.

Braden Davis made sure of it.

The Sooners’ ace left-hander, who’s been on a heater lately, was better than ever as No. 8-ranked OU beat TCU 4-0 in the Big 12 Tournament at Globe Life Field in Arlington, TX.

The Sooners — regular-season champs and No. 1 seed at 23-7 in conference play — improved to 35-18, while 9-seed TCU fell to 32-20.

Davis, who went 7-1 in Big 12 play this season, has now logged seven straight victories. He landed first-team All-Big 12 accolades this year and overwhelmed the Horned Frogs lineup on Wednesday.

In pitching his first career complete game, Davis gave up just four hits, struck out nine and walked zero. Of his career high 120 pitches, 86 were strikes, and his ability to jump ahead of hitters early in the count kept TCU off balance and ensured his team would advance. 

His previous long outing this season was seven innings against West Virginia and Texas Tech — the latter of which he threw a careener-high 108 pitches. Only one other time this year did Davis allow no walks.

Anthony Mackenzie and Jackson Nicklaus each had two hits for the Sooners, and Nicklaus scored twice and drove in two runs.

The Sooners already led 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth when Mackenzie and Nicklaus hit back-to-back solo home runs into the respective bullpens in left and right field.

That was enough to chase TCU ace Payton Tolle.

The Frogs’ left-hander was largely in control through three innings as the game began to shape up as a pitchers’ duel, but the Sooners got to him twice in the fourth before scoring on two long balls in the sixth.

Michael Snyder led off the third with a four-pitch walk and took second on Mackenzie’s line drive to shallow left. Nicklaus followed with a double off the wall in center field to score Snyder. After Mackenzie was called out at home on a ground ball to first base, Nicklaus came home on Kendall Pettis’ RBI single up the middle for a 2-0 lead.

OU is back at Globe Life on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. against Kansas. The Sooners and Jayhawks didn’t play this regular season. KU is the No. 7 seed in the tournament.

OU seeks its second Big 12 tournament title in three years and fourth overall. The Sooners previously won the Big 12 tourney in 1997, 2013 and 2022.