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Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Take Down Tech to Clinch No. 2 Spot in Big 12 Standings

OU jumped out to an early lead with more dynamic offense, then got clutch pitching in the late innings to win its fifth straight conference series.
John E. Hoover|
Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Take Down Tech to Clinch No. 2 Spot in Big 12 Standings
Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Take Down Tech to Clinch No. 2 Spot in Big 12 Standings

With everything on the line, Oklahoma came through.

The No. 24-ranked Sooners jumped out to a big lead and held off No. 6 Texas Tech for a 9-6 victory Friday night at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park in Lubbock.

It's the Sooners' fifth straight Big 12 Conference series victory, and clinches at least the No. 2 spot in the Big 12 standings. If OU wins Sunday to sweep Tech, the Sooners will tie TCU for first place in the standings (OU won the season series against the Horned Frogs).

Oklahoma (32-19 overall, 15-8 Big 12) and Tech (35-18, 14-9) came into Friday’s action tied for second place in the Big 12 standings. OU won Thursday’s opener 13-8. Saturday’s regular-season finale is set for 2 p.m.

After OU seized a 9-2 lead Friday, Trevin Michael pitched two scoreless innings to close it out.

OU starter David Sandlin (6-3) pitched five strong innings, allowing two runs on seven hits and two walks with seven strikeouts.

Chazz Martinez didn’t have the same success, however, giving up four runs in 1 1/3 innings on four walks and two hits.

After Martinez gave up a single and a walk to start the seventh, Carson Atwood gave up an RBI single to Hudson White but then ended the threat with a fly ball and a ground out.

Michael came in for the eighth inning and set the Red Raiders down in order, including a pair of strikeouts.

As usual, the Oklahoma offense was hitting on all cylinders.

Blake Robertson got things started with a two-run home run in the top of the first inning, and Wallace Clark delivered the first of his two RBI singles when he drove in Tanner Tredaway with a single through the right side for a 3-0 Sooner lead.

Peyton Graham’s RBI single to left in the second inning scored Kendall Pettis and pushed OU to a 4-0 advantage.

After Tech scored a run in the second, Clark’s single up the middle in the third plated Tredaway again and gave the Sooners a 5-1 lead.

Tech scored again in the third, but the Sooners got that run back in the fourth when Pettis scored on Graham’s sacrifice fly for a 6-2 OU lead.

Tredaway scored again in the fifth when he raced home from third on a failed pickoff attempt to make it 7-2. Pettis’ two-run double down the left field line scored Brett Squires and Clark to give Oklahoma a commanding 9-2 lead.

Tech wasn’t done, though. Cole Stilwell’s three-run home run over the left field wall off Martinez made it 9-5 in the sixth inning, and Hudson White’s single to center brought home another run to cut the Sooners’ advantage to 9-6 in the seventh.

OU loaded the bases in the top of the ninth, but Crooks and Squires struck out as the Sooners’ lead stayed at three runs.

The Red Raiders put a runner on in the bottom of the ninth, but Michael got a strikeout and two lineouts to finish the deal.

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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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