All Sooners

OU Baseball: No. 9 Oklahoma Falls at Home to LSU

The Sooners were victimized by a gem from Tigers starter Kade Anderson, who threw the first complete-game shutout against OU in 10 years.
John Hoover|
Oklahoma pitcher Kyson Witherspoon
Oklahoma pitcher Kyson Witherspoon | SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

A pitcher’s duel unfolded Thursday night at L. Dale Mitchell Park.

In the end, it was LSU’s Kade Anderson who fired the best shot.

Anderson threw a complete game shutout and struck out a career-high 14 batters against Oklahoma as the No. 7-ranked Tigers beat No. 9 OU 2-0 in Norman.

“It was a good game,” OU coach Skip Johnson said on his postgame radio show. “You gotta tip your hat off to the way their guy pitched. Threw a complete game shutout.”

OU fell to 23-6 overall and 5-5 in SEC play, while LSU improved to 28-3 and 8-2.

Anderson allowed just five hits and two walks to keep the Sooners off the scoreboard — OU’s second shutout loss of the season. 

Oklahoma Sooners

It was the first time an opposing pitcher twirled a complete-game shutout against OU since Kansas State's Nate Griep did it in 2015. The game took just 2 hours, 27 minutes.

LSU and OU meet again for Game 2 at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

Anderson threw 135 pitches to outduel OU ace Kyson Witherspoon, who threw six strong innings — four strikeouts, one walk, six hits but four doubles — and yielded just two earned runs. 

After Witherspoon left in the seventh, OU reliever Jamie Hitt came in and pitched three 1-2-3 innings with four strikeouts.

OU loaded the bases in the first inning against Anderson, but that was the closest Johnson’s club came to turning on the scoreboard.

Easton Carmichael hit a one-out single to left, and Sam Christiansen singled through the left side to move Carmichael to third base. Jaxon Willits walked to load the bases, but Anderson struck out Kyle Branch and Drew Dickerson to end the threat.

“The guy made quality pitches when he had to,” Johnson said.

Meanwhile, LSU scratched across single runs in the third and fifth off Witherspoon, which was plenty to support Anderson.

Jared Jones and Chris Stanfield delivered the RBI hits for LSU.

Christiansen led the Sooners with a 2-for-3 night at the plate with a  double and a walk, while Carmichael, Willits and Dayton Tockey each collected singles.

OU won its first two SEC series 2-1, but then lost two out of three at Alabama last week and has now dropped three of its last four league games.

Published | Modified
John E. Hoover
JOHN 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.

Share on XFollow johnehoover
Home/Baseball