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OU Baseball: Oklahoma Stays Hot, Tops Sam Houston in Opener

Kyson Witherspoon had another stellar Friday start, and the OU bats sparked the Sooners to another non-conference home victory.
John Hoover|
Oklahoma catcher Easton Carmichael
Oklahoma catcher Easton Carmichael | John E. Hoover / Sooners On SI

Another strong Friday night performance on the mound by Kyson Witherspoon and some more big hitting from the Oklahoma bats got the Sooners started off right against Sam Houston State.

No. 13-ranked OU beat the Bearkats 6-5 on a cool night at L. Dale Mitchell Park in the first game of a three-game weekend series.

The Sooners improved to 12-1 on the season and successfully bounced back from their first loss of the season on Tuesday night at Dallas Baptist. Sam Houston fell to 3-10.

Witherspoon (4-0) has won all four of his starts this season. On this night, the Sooners’ hard-throwing right hander pitched five dominant innings and allowed just one run on one hit and two walks while striking out 12 of the 19 batters he faced. Witherspoon also hit a Bearkats batter, but he didn’t allow an extra base it.

Oklahoma Sooners

Jamie Hitt allowed two walks and a hit that yielded a Sam Houston run in the sixth inning. Jason Bodin threw a scoreless eighth but got touched up for two runs in the ninth before Dylan Crooks came in to pick up the save. 

The Sooners jumped on top in the bottom of the fourth when Easton Carmichael smashed a solo home run to right field.

Sam Houston got that run back in the top of the fifth, however, when Blake Brown’s fielder’s choice brought home Brady Christensen to knot it up at 1-1.

In the bottom of the fifth, after Dasan Harris reached, Jaxon Willits’ double to right field brought him home to give the Sooners the lead for good.

Trey Gambill then doubled to right to score Willis for a 3-1 lead.

In the sixth, it was Harris’ single through the right side that scored Willis and Dayton Tockey with a couple of unearned runs and built a 5-1 lead for Oklahoma.

Addison Smith’s sacrifice fly in the seventh scored Ty Marthiljohni to make it 5-2, but OU responded quickly with an RBI single up the middle that scored Gambill and put the Sooners up 6-2.

Bodin gave up a double to start the ninth, then recorded two quick strikeouts. But he walked Brown, and Smith’s deep ball into left-center field bounced off a diving Jason Walk’s glove to score two runs and make it 6-4. 

Jace Martinez immediately greeted Crooks with an RBI double to make it 6-5, but then Crooks ended it with a groundout.

The of the three-game series has been altered by incoming bad weather in Norman. Saturday’s game was pushed to Sunday, when the teams will play a doubleheader starting at noon. First pitch for the second game of Sunday’s doubleheader will be approximately 45 minutes after the conclusion of the noon game. Sunday’s second game will be shortened to seven innings.

Fans who purchased tickets for Saturday's game can use them for the first game of the Sunday doubleheader. The stadium will not be cleared after the conclusion of the first game and re-entry will be allowed.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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