OU Baseball: Nicklaus, Spikerman Lead Offensive Outburst as Sooners Beat Cal

Are Jackson Nicklaus and John Spikerman back?

Oklahoma’s second baseman and center fielder had been mired in sophomore slumps after making so many dynamic contributions to the Sooners’ College World Series run last season, but may have broken out of it on Friday in the Sooners’ 9-5 victory over Cal on Friday at Riders Field in Frisco.

Nicklaus came into this weekend’s Frisco College Baseball Classic hitting just .214 in the Sooners’ first eight games, but exploded for two home runs.

Spikerman entered Friday hitting .147, but delivered an eighth-inning double that plated two runs and extended the Sooners’ lead to 8-5.

OU rallied from a three-run deficit to improve to 5-4, while Cal fell to 6-.2

Cal took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Caleb Lomavita led off with a double off OU starter Kale Davis, went to third on a bunt and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Carson Crawford.

The Bears made it 2-0 in the third when Rodney Green hit a solo home run off Davis.

Cal’s lead jumped to 3-0 in the fourth by manufacturing another run: Tucker Bougie led off with a single to center field, Peyton Schulze walked and Bougie moved to third on a fly ball. Cade Campbell’s sacrifice fly scored Bougie and put the Bears up by three.

The Sooners got two runs back in the bottom of the fourth, however, as Dakota Harris hit a one-out single to right and Nicklaus followed with his first big blast, a two-run home run to make it 3-2.

Davis pitched four innings and gave up three runs on six hits and two walks with three strikeouts.

OU tied it at 3-3 in the fifth when Kendall Pettis led off with a walk, moved to second on a wild pitch and came around to score on Spikerman’s RBI double down the left field line. After Anthony Mackenzie and Bryce Madron struck out, Harris came through with a two-out single to right center to score Spikerman.

That’s when Nicklaus hammered his second homer of the day, a 1-0 pitch he smashed over the the wall in right field for a 6-3 Sooner lead.

Cal wasn’t done, though.

Kade Kretzschmar singled with one out, and Jag Burden hit a first-pitch two-run home run off Campbell to cut it 6-5.

OU put it away with three runs in the eighth.

Spikerman’s bases-loaded double extended the Sooners lead to three, and Pettis scored from third on an fielding error at second base for a 9-5 lead.

The festivities in Frisco continue for Oklahoma on Saturday when the Sooners play Mississippi State (5-3) in a 1 p.m. game.