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OU Baseball: Oklahoma Tops No. 5 Tennessee With 10th Inning Rally

Freshman Jaxon Willits drew a walk and came home on John Spikerman's hit as the Sooners hung four runs in the 10th to beat the Vols.
John E. Hoover|
OU Baseball: Oklahoma Tops No. 5 Tennessee With 10th Inning Rally
OU Baseball: Oklahoma Tops No. 5 Tennessee With 10th Inning Rally

Oklahoma’s Jaxon Willits picked a good time to deliver a clutch plate appearance. John Spikerman picked a good time to reward him.

Spikerman drove in Willits with one out in the top of the 10th on Saturday night to beat No. 5-ranked Tennessee at the Shriners Children’s College Showdown in Arlington, TX.

Willits — the Sooners’ freshman shortstop who was 0-for-3 at the plate on the night and 0-for-6 on the young season — drew a four-pitch walk with one out in the 10th.

Tennessee reliever Aaron Combs followed that up by walking Jackson Nicklaus, putting runners at first and second with one out.

Spikerman then delivered an RBI double to left center, scoring Willits from second, breaking the tie and giving the Sooners a 2-1 lead that held up in the bottom of the 10th.

Easton Carmichael added an RBI single and Rocco Garza-Gongora drove in two more runs with a single through the left side, giving OU a 5-1 lead and pretty much sealing the deal at Globe Life Field.

Ryan Lambert stayed in to pitch the 10th inning but immediately gave up a single to Christian Moore. Lambert then got a strikeout and a pair of groundouts to end it.

OU improved to 1-1 on the season, while Tennessee fell to 1-1.

It was a nice present for head coach Skip Johnson on his birthday.

Both teams added a single run to the scoreboard in the fourth inning.

In the top of the inning, Carmichael led off with a double down the third base line. After Michael Snyder lined out to left, Garza-Gongora delivered an RBI single up the middle — on an 0-2 count — off Vols starter Drew Beam.

Tennessee got the run right back in the bottom of the frame, however, when Dylan Dreiling led off with a home run to right center field off Brendan Girton.

Girton delivered OU’s second straight quality start, scattering three hits and three walks over four innings and allowing just the one run. He threw 88 total pitches, including 51 strikes.

Kyson Witherspoon relieved Girton and threw four scoreless innings, striking out four and walking one while yielding three hits.

Snyder drew a one-out walk to give the Sooners a breath of life in the ninth, but Combs came in to get a strikeout and groundout to end the threat.

In the bottom of the ninth, Witherspoon walked Reese Chapman and Bradke Lohry with one out and was relieved by Lambert.

Facing the top of the Tennessee lineup, Lambert struck out leadoff man Hunter Ensley for the second out, and got Blake Burke — swinging from the left side of the plate against the right-handed Lambert — to pop up on the infield and send it to extra innings.

After Spikerman’s big hit off Combs in the 10th, left hander Matthew Dallas came in to face lefty Bryce Madron, who reached on a fielder’s choice to first base, catching Nicklaus going home but moving Spikerman to third.

Dylan Schaefer replaced Dallas and was greeted by Carmichael’s RBI single that scored Spikerman and sent Madron to third.

Garza-Gongora then brought home Carmichael and Madron to make it 5-1.

OU now leads the all-time series over the Vols 3-1. That includes some rich history between Tennessee and Oklahoma — the Sooners beat the Volunteers in the 1951 College World Series finale for OU’s first national championship.

The Sooners close out Shriners Showdown action on Sunday against old Big Eight/Big 12 foe Nebraska. OU leads the all-time series 117-94-1 against the Cornhuskers.

The Sooners fell 4-2 to Oregon in Friday’s season opener.

Published
John E. Hoover
JOHN E. 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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