OU Baseball: Oklahoma Roughed Up at Home by Kansas
NORMAN – A disappointing performance to start the weekend.
After a huge series sweep of Texas in Austin last weekend, Oklahoma returned to action for the first of a three-game set with Kansas at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman.
Unfortunately for the Sooners (22-20, 7-9), the positive momentum from last weekend did not continue into the series opener, as they were rolled by the Jayhawks (21-21, 5-11) by a final margin of 8-2.
The story of the afternoon was a troubling lack of command for the OU pitching staff, as the Sooners walked ten KU hitters on the day.
Five of those came from the typically reliable Braxton Douthit (4-3), who allowed four earned runs to cross against him and was unable to make it through the fifth.
Trailing 2-0 in the fourth, Oklahoma broke onto the scoreboard with a towering solo home run off the bat of right field Bryce Madron - his ninth of the year.
But the next few innings would prove to be the Sooners’ undoing, as Kansas scored three, one and two runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to balloon their lead all the way out to 8-1.
OU inched closer in the bottom of the seventh with Kendall Pettis tripling followed by John Spikerman driving him home with a base knock, but they were unable to add any more to the rally due in part to a baserunning blunder when the Sooners would have had the bases loaded with no outs.
That would be the Sooners' last good chance to try and get back in it, as they were held scoreless in the last two frames to finish the game.
The loss snaps a four-game conference winning streak for the Sooners and throws a wet blanket on some of the excitement following last weekend’s massive sweep of the Longhorns.
Really needing a bounce back as they fight to improve their NCAA Tournament resume, OU will turn to left-hander Braden Carmichael for the start on the mound in the middle game at 3 p.m. Saturday back in Norman.