OU Baseball: Oklahoma Loses Bedlam Round One in Stillwater
Bedlam round one goes to the Pokes.
After putting together a strong performance against Texas Tech to wrap up the homestand, Oklahoma returned to road action on Tuesday for a midweek non-conference tilt with No. 24 Oklahoma State at O’Brate Stadium in Stillwater, OK.
The two in-state rivals split the Bedlam series a year ago after OU took the first meeting.
This time, it would be the team in orange and black getting off on the right foot as the Cowboys (25-13) protected home field by soundly defeating the Sooners (19-19) 19-8.
While the night would belong to Oklahoma State, the Sooners were the ones to get off to a fast start on Tuesday.
In the first, shortstop Dakota Harris cracked a three-run homer to give OU a 3-0 lead before the Pokes had taken a swing.
But, that early momentum was quickly dashed when OSU came to the plate in the bottom half - as Josh Holliday’s club responded with a huge five-run inning to leap frog in front.
Hoping to seize the flow of the game back to their dugout, Oklahoma got one run back in the second as Bryce Madron plated Wallace Clark with a sacrifice fly.
Oklahoma State, however, was having none of that as they scored three more runs in the bottom half to push their lead out to four runs at 8-4.
The Cowboys added another run to their ledger in the bottom of the fourth before Madron got it back in the fifth, as the lefty swatted a solo homer to center to make it 9-5.
OSU then plated two more runs in the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings on solo homers to extend their lead to 11-5 after six innings of play.
Oklahoma would put together a rally in the seventh to make things interesting, though, as they scored three runs on a bases loaded walk drawn by Jackson Nicklaus and a two-run single by Diego Muniz.
But, despite having runners on the corners and only one out, the Sooners were unable to do any more damage and remained behind by three runs at 11-8.
That missed opportunity would prove costly, as Oklahoma State would go on to explode for eight more runs - seven of which coming in the eighth - to put the game away in the late innings.
The loss dips Oklahoma back down to .500 on the year and is their third defeat in the last four games.
Continuing the theme of rivalry contests on the road, the Sooners will have a couple days off before getting back to Big 12 play with the first of a three-game set with No. 14 Texas beginning on Friday night in Austin.