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OU Baseball: Dakota Harris' Big Hit Caps Late Rally as Oklahoma Beats Air Force

The Sooners' offense got out of the gates slow over the weekend, but OU put together 13 hits against the Falcons, including clutch hits both early and late.
John E. Hoover|
OU Baseball: Dakota Harris' Big Hit Caps Late Rally as Oklahoma Beats Air Force
OU Baseball: Dakota Harris' Big Hit Caps Late Rally as Oklahoma Beats Air Force

Oklahoma has been waiting on a clutch hit.

Dakota Harris delivered.

Harris crushed a two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the eighth inning on Monday at L. Dale Mitchell Park as the Sooners rallied to beat Air Force 8-6.

OU lost two of three in its season-opening series to Cal Baptist over the weekend, and managed just 12 total hits in the three games.

The Sooner lineup collected 13 total hits against Air Force.

Harris finished 2-for-5 with four RBIs, while Easton Carmichael went 3-for-4, Anthony Mackenzie went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and John Spikerman went 2-for-4.

The Sooners (2-2) did something else against the Falcons (1-3) they couldn’t do in their opening series with Cal Baptist: score first.

In the first inning, Spikerman led off with a single up the middle, and Mackenzie doubled to left-center field. With one out, Harris sent them both home with a double down the left field line for a 2-0 Oklahoma lead.

After Air Force cut OU’s lead in half with a run in the top of the second, the Sooners plated two more to take a 4-1 lead.

Carmichael led off with a triple to left field, and Kendall Pettis drew a four-pitch walk. Both runners advanced on a balk by Air Force left-hander Kyle Moats, giving the Sooners a 3-1 edge. Pettis then moved up on Spikerman’s groundout and scored on McKenzie’s sacrifice fly to right to make it 4-1.

Gray Harrison got the start on the mound for the Sooners, and Carson Turnquist replaced him to open the third inning.

Air Force got to Turnquist quickly, with Jake Grieving reaching on a one-out single through the right side and Jay Thomason blasting a two-run home run to right-center field to cut it to 4-3.

AFA put two more runners on against Turnquist to start the fourth inning, but after a pitching change to lefty Julien Hachem, Sam Kulasingam got two quick strikes and then was assessed an inning-ending third strike for not getting back into the batters within 10 seconds — a violation of new NCAA timing regulations.

That brought Air Force coach Mike Kazlausky out in protest, and he was ejected for arguing the call.

Air Force was unaffected, however.

The Falcons got a leadoff double from Grieving to start the fifth. He moved up on a wild pitch, then scored on Chase Spencer’s RBI double that tied it at 4-4 and sent Hachem to the bench. Chris Stallings then smashed a two-run home run off Adam Walker just inside the left field foul pole to put AFA on top 6-4.

The Sooners got one run back when Bryce Madron led off the bottom of the fifth with a double to right-center, moved to third on Harris’ deep foul to right, and came home on Wallace Clark’s first-pitch single to short. Clark advanced to third on a couple of wild pitches, but he was stranded when Patrick Engskov struck out swinging.

Oklahoma loaded the bases with no out to start the sixth inning but scored just one run to tie it and left the bases full.

Carmichael led off with an infield single and stole second, and Pettis walked. After a pitching change, Spikerman was hit by pitch to load the bases, and Carmichael tagged up on Mackenzie’s fly ball to left field and scored from third to tie it at 6-6. Madron was granted an intentional walk, and after Harris struck out swinging, Clark grounded out to end the rally.

Oklahoma staged the go-ahead rally in the eighth inning when Pettis crushed a line drive infield single to first and took third on Mackenzie’s single through the right side. But right fielder Spencer’s throw was cut off by shortstop Aerik Joe, who threw behind Mackenzie at first for the second out.

The rally stayed alive, barely, as Madron walked to put runners at the corners. That’s when Harris delivered his two-run double, a laser beam that rolled to the right field wall to score Pettis and Madron for an 8-6 lead. Harris was originally ruled out as he tried to stretch his hit to third base, but umpires watched replay review and determined he was safe at third. The rally, however, ended with a strikeout.

That sent Carson Pierce (1-0) back out to close the ninth inning. Pierce threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings for the win.

The Sooners travel to Arlington, Texas, Wednesday for a single game against Abilene Christian at Globe Life Field. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.

OU hosts Rider for a three-game series this weekend at Mitchell Park.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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