OU Baseball: Oklahoma Opens Road Series by Thumping Houston

Oklahoma’s bats stayed hot. And this time, the Sooner lineup got some strong pitching.

OU beat Houston 13-1 on Friday night as the Sooners opened a three-game series at Houston’s Schroeder Park against their future Big 12 opponent.

Rocco Garza-Gongora had a home run among his two hits, three RBIs and three runs scored, Dakota Harris homered and had three hits and scored three times, and Easton Carmichael had four hits and drove in three runs as the Sooners rolled to another explosive offensive performance.

Anthony McKenzie and Kendall Pettis each had two RBIs as the Sooners collected 13 hits and nine walks.

Meanwhile, Kale Davis (2-0) delivered his best outing of the season on the mound, giving up just one run over a season-high six innings, scattering five hits and three walks and striking out a season-high five. He faced just 24 batters and threw 50 of his 90 pitches for strikes.

Davis finished his night strong, getting out of minor trouble in the sixth — a runner at third base and two out — with a strikeout. Davis also ended the third and fourth innings with a strikeout.

It was Davis’ first pitching win since the Sooners’ season opener on Feb. 17.

Carson Atwood pitched a perfect seventh and eighth innings.

The Sooners improved to 9-5 and have now won seven of their last eight. Houston fell to 5-8.

OU took a quick lead in the first when Garza-Gongora drew a bases-loaded walk to bring home John Spikerman.

Zach Arnold’s solo home run off Davis tied it at 1-1, but it was all Sooners after that.

In the fourth, Garza-Gongora scored from third on a wild pitch to put the Sooners up 2-1. Pettis’ groundout to short brought Carmichael home from third for a 3-1 OU lead.

Oklahoma pulled away with four runs in the fifth, powered by Garza-Gongora’s two-run home run to right that made it 6-1. It was his second homer of the season and raised his batting average to .412.

Jackson Nicklaus reached base for the 14th game in a row and scored on the blast ahead of Garza-Gongora. Nicklaus reached on an RBI single down the right field line that scored Harris and had given OU a 4-1 lead.

Pettis drove in the Sooners’ fourth run of the inning with a sacrifice fly to right that sent Carmichael home for a 7-1 OU lead.

The carnage continued when McKenzie’s single to right-center field brought home Spikerman and Sebastian Orduno and put the Sooners up 9-1.

In the eighth, Carmichael delivered a bases-clearing triple, his fourth hit of the night, that put OU up 12-1.

Harris added a solo home run in the ninth, his second of the year, and raised his season average to .406.

That now gives the Sooners four regulars — Mackenzie (.404), Harris (.406), Garza-Gongola (.400) and Carmichael (.431) — with batting averages north of .400.

The Sooners and Cougars are back on the diamond in a 6:30 p.m. game Saturday and will conclude the series with a 1 p.m. game Sunday.