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OU Baseball: Oklahoma Suffers First Loss, Falling to California Baptist

The Lancers struck for three runs in the eighth inning to jump in front and knock off the Sooners for the first time in 2023.
Josh Callaway|
OU Baseball: Oklahoma Suffers First Loss, Falling to California Baptist
OU Baseball: Oklahoma Suffers First Loss, Falling to California Baptist

The first series of the season is all tied up. 

After an opening day victory on Friday, Oklahoma continued their three-game set with California Baptist on Saturday afternoon at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman.

This time around, it would be the Lancers leaving the ballpark with the win as CBU struck for three late runs to win it 5-2. 

Getting the start on the bump in the second game of the season was right-hander Will Carsten, who put forth a solid effort in his Sooners debut.

The JUCO transfer worked five innings allowing eight hits and two earned runs while striking out four on 97 pitches.

Much like the series opener, the Lancers would be the team to get on the board first pushing across a run in the opening frame on an RBI single from Josiah Chavez.

The score sat at 1-0 in favor of CBU until Oklahoma scored their first run of the day in the fourth on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Rocco Garza-Gongora.

It wouldn’t take long for California Baptist to jump back in the lead, though, as Dusty Garcia hammered a solo home run in the top half of the fifth to put the Lancers back on top at 2-1.

The Sooners then immediately responded in the bottom half of the frame with first baseman Anthony Mackenzie singling through the right side of the infield to plate Kendall Pettis and even the game at 2-2.

After Carsten’s day was wrapped up, OU head coach Skip Johnson would deploy his bullpen in the sixth turning to right-hander Jett Lodes to make his 2023 season debut.

The junior from Yukon, OK did his job on Saturday, working two scoreless innings in the sixth and seventh - capped off with a big pair of strikeouts.

But, unfortunately for Oklahoma, the bullpen success would hit a rough patch in the eighth with right-hander Gray Harrison running into trouble.

CBU struck for three runs in the frame on RBI hits from Garcia and Connor McGuire with another coming across on a balk. 

California Baptist now led 5-2 needing just six outs to get their first win of the season.

The Lancers would accomplish just that, but not without Oklahoma putting up quite a fight in the ninth.

The Sooners battled to load the bases with two outs for Mackenzie, but the first baseman struck out on a 3-2 pitch to end the game. 

The loss dips OU to 1-1 on the very young season and sets up a rubber match in the first series of the campaign. 

Game 3 of the set is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon back at L. Dale Mitchell Park. 

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Josh Callaway
JOSH CALLAWAY

Josh has been with AllSooners since June of 2021 after spending the previous year with Sooners Wire via USA TODAY Sports. He is also a high school sports broadcaster for the Oklahoma Sports Network. You can follow him on Twitter at @JoshMCallaway.

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