Sooners Ride Early Lead To 5-2 Victory Over ORU

I don't think anyone is willing to say that the ship has been turned completely around but over the last seven days the Oklahoma Sooners have found their stride. The result has been a 5-1 record over the last seven days with in-state rival Oral Roberts being the latest victim.

Oklahoma's pitching held the Golden Eagles off the scoreboard until the sixth inning and by that point the Sooner bats had already taken their toll, putting the game out of reach.

The Sooners wasted no time scoring runs. They crossed the plate twice in the first inning when the first four OU batters reached base successfully. Caleb Bushyhead started Oklahoma's half of the inning with a single and was followed to first by the next batter, Jack Mayfield, who reached on a walk. Both players would eventually cross the plate two batters later when Max White singled to right field.

Big XII Tuesday Night Scoreboard

Nebraska 6, Kansas State 3

Texas A&M 7, Houston Baptist 2

Oklahoma State 9, Arkansas-Little Rock 7

Oklahoma 5, Oral Roberts 2

Baylor 14, Houston 5

Missouri State 9, Kansas 8

Missouri 12, Central Arkansas 7

New Mexico State 7, Texas Tech 6

OU would bounce ORU's starting pitcher, Alec Smith, after the third inning when they plated two more runs. This time the runs came off the bat of freshman Hunter Lockwood who sent a two-shot home run over the left field fence to score both himself and Max White, giving Oklahoma a 4-0 lead.

In the fourth inning the Sooners scored their fifth and final run of the game when freshman Brian Brightwell scored on a Jack Mayfield sacrifice to center field. At the end of the day Oklahoma's batters scored five runs on off of eight hits which was more than twice enough to win the game thanks to solid pitching performances.

Starter Cale Coshow went five innings in which he allowed one run to score on five hits. An alarming stat however is that Coshow also walked six of the twenty batters that he faced. Just as alarming is that Kindle Ladd walked four batters in just 2.2 innings but he also struck our four of the fourteen batters he faced and wasn't responsible for any runs himself.

Damien Magnifico faced four batters in relief and gave up ORU's second run of the game. Jordan John faced two batters to close out the game and didn't allow either to reach base. Despite the twelve walks, Oklahoma's hurlers held ORU to just three hits which is a season low for this pitching staff.

The Sooners are home this weekend against Kansas State.