West Virginia Rolled in Norman
Norman, OK - The West Virginia Mountaineers fell 15-1 to the Oklahoma Sooners Friday night. Wallace Clark, Brett Squires, and Kendall Pettis combined for six hits and nine of Oklahoma's 12 RBIs.
West Virginia starting pitcher Jacob Watters faced the minimum through two innings but began to lose command in the third when Jackson Nicklaus broke the scoreless game with a leadoff towering solo home run. Then, Brett Squires pulled a single into right field, and advanced to second on a wild pitch before Kendall Pettis brought him around for the second run of the inning, lining a single into centerfield. Pettis would get caught stealing at third, but Peyton Graham doubled into left field and made it home on two wild pitches to cap of a three-run third inning.
Watters struggles continued into the fourth when Jimmy Crooks worked a full count into a leadoff walk. He stole second and a wide throw gave Crooks third before Wallace Clark delivered the RBI single. Nicklaus kept the inning going with a base hit to centerfield, placing runners at the corners, then Squires flied out in left field foul territory, scoring Clark. Watters balked, prompting West Virginia head coach Randy Mazey to call out to his bullpen for Zach Bravo, and he'd get out of the inning unscathed.
West Virginia scored in the fifth on a pair of Oklahoma errors but with two on and no outs, the Mountaineers were unable to bring anymore runners across.
Oklahoma broke the game open with a five run fifth inning, taking a 10-1 lead.
The Sooners added two more runs in the sixth, another in the seventh, and plated another pair of runs in the eighth to cruise to a 15-1 victory.
West Virginia will look to even the series in game two on Saturday at 3:00 pm EST and will be televised on Bally's Sports Oklahoma.
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