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OU Baseball: Jackson Nicklaus Walkoff HR Sends Oklahoma to Big 12 Title Game

The Sooners fell behind Kansas 6-0 early, but stabilized the pitching, got some defensive gems and turned on the bats, culminated by Nicklaus' game-winner in the ninth.

John E. Hoover

Jackson Nicklaus
Jackson Nicklaus / Dylan Widger-USA TODAY Sports

The Sooners are on to the Big 12 Championship Game.

Jackson Nicklaus hit a two-run, walk-off home run Friday to complete a crazy comeback and send Oklahoma to an 8-6 victory over  Kansas in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals at Globe Life Field in Arlington, TX.

In a game No. 8-ranked OU fell behind 6-0 in the second inning, it took the dynamic bats a bit to wake up — but inevitably, they did, and it was finished with Nicklaus’ clutch hit.

”We got a lot more gams to win,” Nicklaus said on the ESPN+ broadcast.

The No. 1-seeded Sooners improved to 37-18, while 7-seed KU fell to 31-23. It was the Sooners’ second win over the Jayhawks in as many days.

With the win, OU advanced to Saturday’s 6 p.m. championship game at Globe Life against the survivor of Friday’s action between Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and UCF.

The new format of this year’s tournament didn’t seem to have much fan support — and that was nearly underscored with Friday’s first semifinal.

With four new Big 12 members this season, the expansion to a 10-team field necessitated change. But the Big 12 took that change to an unpopular place: after giving the top two seeds a first-round bye, this year’s double-elimination tournament switches to single elimination in the semifinal round.

So even though OU already dealt Kansas a loss, the Sooners didn’t have the luxury of a stumble in the semis and would have been eliminated after a loss. 

The Sooners probably felt a bit fortunate at all to even reach the semifinals after committing seven errors in a victory over Kansas on Thursday.

After falling behind 6-0 early — starter Brendan Girton gave up four runs on four hits and a walk in the first, then allowed two more runs on two hits, a walk and a hit batter in the second — OU stabilized things when left hander Grant Stevens came on in the second inning.

Stevens, a grad transfer from University of the Pacific, entered with nobody out in the second and pitched 5 1/3 shutout innings. Follwoing a bumpy start, Stevens scattered seven hits and struck out six with no walks as he threw 98 pitches in relief. 

Stevens’ effort was just what Skip Johnson and company needed as OU’s bats eventually came back to life.

In the fifth, Scott Mudler led off with a single, and Willits mashed a two-out home run to get OU on the scoreboard. 

After Easton Carmichael singled and Michael Snyder and Anthony Mackenzie walked to load the bases, Jackson Nicklaus singled to center, scoring Snyder and Carmichael and cutting the deficit to 6-4. Following a pitching change, Kendall Pettis followed with  an RBI single to center that brought Mackenzie home and made it 6-5. 

The Sooners might have had an even bigger inning, but Nicklaus was thrown out trying to go from first to third on Pettis’ single up the middle, even though it was hit in front of him. KU center fielder John Nett pegged Nicklaus by six feet to end the inning.

In the sixth, the Sooners completed the comeback with a single run.

Jason Walk drew a one-out walk, then advanced to third on back-to-back wild pitches. After John Spikerman walked, Willits came through again with an RBI double to right center field that tied it up at 6-6.

With one out and Willits and second and Spikerman at third, however, OU couldn’t take the lead as Carmichael fouled out and Snyder struck out.

In the seventh, with a KU runner at third following a single off Stevens, a wild pitch and a groundout, Snyder saved a run when he dove down the first base line to snag a grounder for the third out.   

Carson Atwood relieved Stevens to get the final two outs of the seventh and get OU out of the jam.

KU reliever Tegan Cain returned the favor in the bottom of the seventh as OU put runners at first and third but got no further as Cain struck out Mudler and pinch hitter Bryce Madron.

The Sooner defense rose up again in the eighth as Kansas loaded the bases against Atwood and James Hitt. With two out and Jett Lodes on the mound, Collier Cranford crushed  a ball to deep right field, but backup Rocco Garza-Gongora chased it down, stretched and made a dramatic, full-speed catch at the warning track to end the inning.

Again, KU responded with more solid defense in the bottom of the eighth as Spikerman led off with a bunt single but reliever Cooper Moore ended the threat by inducing three straight ground balls to leave the score tied at 6-6.

Lodes got a strikeout to open the ninth, but then issued back-to-back walks and got the hook. Ryan Lambert replaced him and quelled the rally with back-to-back strikeouts.

Mackenzie led off the bottom of the ninth with a sharp single, leading to Nicklaus’ game-winning bomb into the empty seats in right field.

OU is chasing its second Big 12 postseason title in three years and fourth overall. The Sooners other Big 12 tournament wins came in in 1997, 2013 and 2022.

Oklahoma is also hoping it can land one of eight national seeds in next week’s NCAA Tournament. That would allow the Sooners to host both a regional and, if they advance, a super regional in Norman.

OU came into Friday with college baseball’s No. 13 RPI (Ratings Percentage Index), the No. 6 strength of schedule and the No. 10 KPI. According to the latest projection from D1Baseball.com, OU can expect to receive the No. 7 overall seed next week.

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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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