OU Baseball: Oklahoma Drops Finale With No. 6 Stanford, Splits Series

NORMAN – A hard-fought series comes to a draw.

After winning a thriller on Saturday, Oklahoma concluded their four-game weekend set with No. 6 Stanford on Sunday afternoon at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman.

Eyeing a series win after dropping the opener, the Sooners (15-14) will ultimately have to settle for a split as the Cardinal (18-7) proved to be too much on Sunday, winning by a final score of 16-5.

In a fashion very similar to Thursday’s opener, although slightly less prolific, the Stanford offense was simply unrelenting on Sunday as Oklahoma struggled to keep their bats in check.

The Sooners would do their best to hang in offensively, as after falling behind 1-0 early, OU got on the board themselves in the first.

Designated hitter Easton Carmichael did the honors, scoring a run on a two-out infield single.

After a shaky opening inning, right-hander Will Carsten settled down nicely over the next few innings, keeping the Cardinal off the board into the fifth.

But, it was at that point that the Stanford offense would come unglued.

The Cardinal struck for five runs in the frame, capped off with a two-run moonshot homer off the bat of second baseman Drew Bowser.

After OU got one back on a solo shot from Anthony Mackenzie, Stanford responded with another crooked number in the sixth.

See ya later 👋@AnthonyMacken11 with a solo blast to right 💣#COMPETE | #CHAOUS pic.twitter.com/pfqPQRVtjK
— Oklahoma Baseball (@OU_Baseball) April 2, 2023

Third baseman Tommy Troy drove in a run on an RBI triple before first baseman Carter Graham knocked in another on a double, later scoring himself on an error.

After six innings, the Cardinal held a commanding 9-2 lead.

Things did get interesting in the seventh, as the Sooners rallied to get themselves back into the game.

Bryce Madron, John Spikerman and Carmichael all picked up RBIs to move Oklahoma to within four runs at 9-5 and seemingly back into the ballgame.

Stanford, however, was having none of that as they promptly erased the ground made up by OU and then some by striking for five runs to balloon their advantage to 14-5.

The Cardinal would tack on another two runs in the ninth to bring the final margin to 16-5.

The loss for Oklahoma means the highly-anticipated series between two participants in last year’s College World Series will have to go down as a split.

While certainly not the way the Sooners wanted to end the weekend, Skip Johnson’s club bouncing back to draw the set after losing the opener should be commended.

After one day off on Monday, Oklahoma will return to action on Tuesday with a short road trip up north to battle Oral Roberts in Tulsa.