OU Baseball: Oklahoma Stages Furious Rally at Georgia But Comes Up Short

Oklahoma didn’t get the starting pitching it needed early, and the Sooners just couldn’t come up with enough clutch hits late.

No. 13-ranked OU lost 10-9 at No. 9 Georgia on Friday afternoon in the second game of their three-game series at Foley Field in Athens.

OU fell to 30-12 overall and 11-9 in SEC play, while the Bulldogs snapped a five-game losing streak to improve to 34-11 and 11-9.

Just a day after losing hard-hitting, slick-fielding first baseman Dayton Tockey for potentially the rest of the regular season after a wayward slide late in Thursday night's OU win over the Bulldogs, the Sooners were sluggish out of the gate on Friday.

Dawson Willis went 4-for-5 at the plate with three RBIs out of the 9-hole, including a two-out single in the ninth. Jason Walk and Kyle Branch each had two hits for the Sooners, and Walk had three RBIs while Branch had two.

But OU stranded 10 baserunners on the day, and left too many hanging in the late innings.

Cade Crossland (3-3) got his sixth consecutive SEC start for OU but got roughed up early.

Crossland finished four innings and yielded seven earned runs on three hits, three walks and two hit batters. He struck out four.

His nemesis was third baseman Slate Alford, who hit a solo home run in the first inning, then contributed to a five-run second with a two-run double that gave the Bulldogs a 6-0 lead.

The Sooners rallied and finally turned on their end of the scoreboard with two runs in the fifth, three in the sixth, two in the seventh and two in the eighth.

Walk led off the fifth with a single to right, and Branch was hit by pitch. Dasan Harris singled to right to load the bases, and Drew Dickerson grounded into a 5-3 double play that scored Walk from third. Willis then delivered a two-out double to left field to score Harris and made it 6-2.

The Bulldogs jumped up for three more runs in the bottom of the fifth, however.

After Crossland walked Alford to lead off the inning, Reid Hensley came out of the bullpen. Alford immediately moved up on a wild pitch, and Ryland Zaborowski drew a walk. That’s when Tre Phelps stepped up and greeted Hensley with a three-run home run to extend the Bulldogs’ lead to 9-2.

In the sixth, Oklahoma rallied for three more.

Sam Christiansen drew a walk, then took second on Walk’s groundout and moved to third on a wild pitch. Branch singled to right field to score Christiansen to make it 9-3, and after Harris walked to put two runners on, Willis hammered an RBI double to left that scored Harris and Branch and cut Georgia’s lead to 9-5.

The Sooners added two more runs in the seventh, but missed a golden opportunity for more.

Jaxon Willits started the inning when he was hit by pitch, and Carmichael singled to left. After a pitching change, Christiansen walked on four pitches to load the bases. Walk’s ground ball to second forced Christiansen but brought in Willits to cut it to 9-6. Branch came through again, this time with a single to center that scored Carmichael and made it 9-7 with runners at first and second and just one out.

Harris moved both runners up with a groundout to third, but Scott Mudler took strike three to end the rally with runners stranded at second and third.

Michael Catalano struck out the first two Bulldogs he faced in the seventh, but coach Skip Johnson went back to the pen and brought in freshman Jaden Barfield. Barfield walked Rob Burnett on four pitches, then Burnett took second on a passed ball. Burnett scored easily on Cade Brown’s two-out double to shallow left field to extend the Bulldogs’ lead to 10-7.

While that insurance run ended up being huge, the Sooner hitters were undeterred.

Willis led off the eighth with a single to center, then took second on Trey Gambill’s groundout. Willits walked on four pitches, and Carmichael grounded out to shortstop, but second baseman Trey King dropped the double-play relay, allowing Willis to get safely to third.

After Christiansen was hit by pitch to load the bases, Walk delivered a two-out, two-run single — a dying, one-hopper under the glove at second base — that sent Carmichael and Willis home and made it 10-9.

With Christiansen representing the tying run at third base, however, Branch struck out swinging to end the inning.

In the ninth, after Willis reached on his fourth hit of the day — a two-out single — he was stranded when Gambill struck out swinging.

OU and Georgia meet at 11 a.m. CT Saturday to decide the series.