OU Baseball: Oklahoma Opens 2023 Season With Win Over California Baptist

NORMAN – Baseball is back.

After a historic run to the College World Series finals last year, Oklahoma began anew on Friday in the 2023 season opener against California Baptist.

Looking to ride the momentum built up from last season, the Sooners aimed to put the right foot forward on the new campaign and did just that, taking down the Lancers 5-2 at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman.

Getting the opening day start for Skip Johnson’s club was right-hander Kale Davis, who twirled a gem in his OU debut.

The Oklahoma State transfer worked five solid innings allowing just two hits and one earned run while striking out five CBU hitters.

"I thought Kale was really good," Johnson said. "It was huge watching Kale go five innings."

"I thought he was as good in the last inning. He made some quality pitches when he had to make them. That's what pitching is."

After California Baptist scratched a run across in the top of the first to snag an early lead, the Sooners responded right back plating a run of their own in their first trip to the plate by working five walks against Lancers starter Seth Mattox.

But, after the rocky first inning, Mattox would settle down keeping OU hitless through three frames.

That was until Oklahoma shortstop Dakota Harris would pick up his team’s first hit of the season in style - pounding a laser beam home run over the left field fence.

𝑮𝑶𝑶𝑫 𝑩𝒀𝑬 👋 𝑫𝑨𝑲𝑶𝑻𝑨 𝑯𝑨𝑹𝑹𝑰𝑺

💻 » https://t.co/104Wd8Ngjj #COMPETE | #CHAOUS pic.twitter.com/DCN3YZXc63
— Oklahoma Baseball (@OU_Baseball) February 17, 2023

"It was huge," Johnson said of Harris' homer. "He's done really well. He came in as a switch hitter, but Russell (Raley) and Reggie (Willits) talked to him about just hitting right-handed. I think it made him focus a little bit more. He's good hitter, he's a good player."

After Wallace Clark walked, designated hitter Rocco Garza-Gongora then added to the OU lead with a single into left field that would get away from the CBU defender - allowing Clark to come all the way around to score.

Garza-Gongora later scored on a wild pitch to make it a 4-1 Sooners lead after four innings of play.

𝘽𝙍𝙄𝙉𝙂𝙄𝙉' 𝙏𝙃𝙀 #𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙊𝙐𝙎

B4 | Sooners plate three to take a 4-1 lead
💻 » https://t.co/104Wd8Ngjj #COMPETE pic.twitter.com/DrozvhKfn2
— Oklahoma Baseball (@OU_Baseball) February 17, 2023

Following Davis' departure, Johnson turned to right-hander Carson Atwood first out of the bullpen.

Atwood would work himself into a bases loaded jam, but avoided any damage by forcing a fly out to left field to keep the score at 4-1.

The same couldn't be said for left-hander Carter Campbell, who gave up a solo homer to Lancers center fielder Julian Alvarez to lead off the seventh.

Campbell would bounce back, though, retiring the next three hitters including a pair of strikeouts to take OU into the stretch leading 4-2.

Jackson Nicklaus would later add to that lead in the eighth, picking up an RBI double to extend the advantage to 5-2.

After Campbell escaped a jam with runners on first and second and two outs in the top half of the eighth, OU turned to right-hander Aaron Calhoun to finish the job in the ninth.

The sophomore answered the call working a 1-2-3 inning to close things out with a pair of strikeouts.

"Aaron was really a true freshman last year," Johnson said. "To be honest with you, he's probably a true freshman now. He had limited innings last year, at times. But he really works extremely hard. Had a really good summer at the Cape (Cod League), and it was fun watching him go out and compete."

In front of an impressive opening day crowd, the win gets Oklahoma's 2023 campaign off to a positive start at 1-0 as they look to build some early season momentum.

"It was awesome, it was incredible," Johnson said of the fan turnout. "The energy was incredible. I always say that (the crowd) is like the 10-hole hitter. When you have fans and you can bring them out and it's packed, those kids play harder. That's my challenge to all the fans. No matter win or lose, they're going to help us win baseball games. They do for other programs, why not this program."

The Sooners will run it back against the Lancers for the middle contest of their three-game set on Saturday at 2 p.m. back at L. Dale Mitchell Park.