OU Baseball: Oklahoma Allows 23 Runs to No. 6 Stanford in Sixth Straight Loss

NORMAN – The losing skid continues.

Riding a five-game losing streak, Oklahoma returned to home action on Thursday night for the first of a four-game weekend set against No. 6 Stanford at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman.

Hoping for a momentum-turning performance against a top-10 opponent, the Sooners (13-13) struggles continued as they ran into a buzzsaw Cardinal (17-5) offense with OU coming up on the wrong end of a laugher 23-11.

The story of the night is obvious to gather just from the final score alone as Oklahoma’s pitching simply couldn’t find a way to slow the Stanford bats down.

The Cardinal got it going early and often on Thursday night, striking for four runs in the very first frame on a grand slam from Malcolm Moore.

In the second, Stanford would go for seven more runs to extend their lead all the way to 11-0 only an inning and a half into the game.

In typical fashion, the Sooners continued to plug away offensively, getting one run back in the second on a Diego Muniz RBI single and another in the third on a run-scoring knock from Sebastian Orduno.

But the Cardinal offense was simply unrelenting, scoring two runs in the third, one in the fourth, four in the fifth and two in the sixth to be sitting on 20 runs after six turns at bat.

In the midst of the onslaught, the OU offense continued to battle with Muniz cracking a two-run homer and Bryce Madron pulverizing a three-run shot in the fourth to get OU a five-run inning and show some signs of life.

𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐡 💪@Bryce_madron with a three-run blast! Sooners have scored 🖐 runs in the fourth!#COMPETE | #CHAOUS pic.twitter.com/XET9Kf7wGm
— Oklahoma Baseball (@OU_Baseball) March 31, 2023

The Oklahoma runs, however, were continuously countered with Stanford ones as the lead ballooned out to thirteen runs at the midway point of the sixth.

But, the Sooners kept chipping away striking for four in the sixth and seventh innings on an Anthony Mackenzie solo home run, a Rocco Garza-Gongora sacrifice fly and a two-run single from Madron.

𝐌𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐧𝐳𝐢𝐞. 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐞. 𝐑𝐮𝐧. 💣@AnthonyMacken11 with the solo blast!#COMPETE | #CHAOUS pic.twitter.com/ScgsFiEnMX
— Oklahoma Baseball (@OU_Baseball) March 31, 2023

At the end of seven innings, Stanford led 20-11.

The Cardinal would go on to add three more runs on the board before finally coming to a rest at a 23-11 final margin.

The loss is OU’s sixth straight and has them searching for answers on the mound.

In Oklahoma’s last six games, the Sooners have allowed 23, eight, eight, seven, seven and eight runs respectively - certainly a hard trend to overcome and find wins.

Hoping to break the skid, OU will turn to right-hander Braxton Douthit for the start on Friday in Game 2 of the series at 6:30 p.m. back at L. Dale Mitchell Park.