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OU Baseball: Oklahoma Storms to SEC-Opening Victory at South Carolina

Hot bats early, gutsy relief pitching late pushed the Sooners to an 8-5 win in their SEC baseball debut.
Guerin Emig|
Oklahoma first baseman Dayton Tockey
Oklahoma first baseman Dayton Tockey | John E. Hoover / Sooners On SI

Oklahoma commemorated its SEC baseball entrance with a gutsy 8-5 victory at South Carolina Friday night, improving to 16-1 on the season while taking the opener of a three-game "Welcome to the Big Time" series.

"It's great," OU coach Skip Johnson told Voice of the Sooners Toby Rowland in postgame. "Good for the program and good for the University of Oklahoma."

Ace pitcher Kyson Witherspoon was somewhere between solid and spectacular over his five-plus innings. He left with a 7-1 lead with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning, and ran his record to 5-0 when reliever Jason Bodin blunted South Carolina's attempt to rally.

Johnson first called on Jamie Hitt after the Gamecocks (15-4) put two on with one out in the sixth. Three hits, a hit batter and four South Carolina runs later, Johnson gave the ball to Bodin to protect what had become a 7-5 lead.

The sophomore right hander responded by getting Gamecocks pinch-hitter Jace Woita on an inning-ending dribbler that catcher Easton Carmichael handled in front of home plate.

Bodin powered through a walk and a single in the bottom of the seventh thanks to a Jaxon Willits-to-Kyle Branch-to-Dayton Tockey 6-4-3 double play and a two-out comebacker to the mound.

Bodin allowed Talmadge LeCroy's leadoff single in the eighth, but rebounded thanks to another Willits-to-Branch-to-Tockey double play. South Carolina nine-hole Henry Kaczmar singled with two out, but then Bodin retired leadoff man Nathan Hall on a pop to Branch.

OU closer Dylan Crooks worked around a one-out walk in the bottom of the ninth for his sixth save.

Johnson could take heart in his team's brave pitching, clean defense and timely hitting.

The Sooners jumped all over South Carolina starter Brandon Stone. Jason Walk, Trey Gambill and Carmichael rolled singles into the outfield to open the game. Willits doubled to the 380-foot sign in right-center. Sam Christiansen was hit by a pitch. Branch brought home a run with a bouncer to second base, then Tockey brought home another with a sacrifice fly to left.

Witherspoon had a 4-0 lead before he threw his first pitch.

It became 5-0 thanks to Dasan Harris' first college home run in the top of the fourth inning.

South Carolina touched Witherspoon for a run in the bottom of the fifth, but Tockey answered that with his second home run, and first since the season opener, to make it 6-1 in the top of the sixth.

Dawson Willis crushed his second home run over the past five days well beyond the left-field fence to lead off the top of the eighth, making it 8-5 and giving Bodin a little more cushion.

OU's Malachi Witherspoon takes the ball for the second game of the weekend series Saturday at 3 p.m.

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Guerin Emig
GUERIN EMIG

Guerin is a 25-year Oklahoma sports journalist. He spent the bulk of that time with the Tulsa World, where he partnered with Sooners On SI publisher John Hoover on the OU beat before eventually becoming a columnist. He lives in Tulsa with his wife, Christy, his sweetheart from Booker T. Washington's Class of ‘86.

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