It was clear on Wednesday afternoon that Oklahoma baseball coach Pete Hughes wanted to get into his bullpen and give his guys a look. A total of five Sooner pitchers took the mound against Abilene Christian, in the opener of their two-game series, and produced a run run/six hit performance with eight strikeouts. Perhaps the most impressive stat of the day for Oklahoma pitchers was that, in 34 batters faced, they only allowed two walks.
Freshman Octavio Rodriguez earned the win in what was the first start of his Oklahoma baseball career. He pitched two scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out one. He was followed on the mound by Robert Tasin, Kindle Ladd, and Kyle Hayes who each pitched two innings as well. Tasin struck out a game-high three batters while each of the relievers allowed just a single hit. Kyle Hayes was credited for allowing Abilene Christian's only run of the game.
Wednesday's Big XII Baseball Scores
|
Oklahoma |
4 |
Abilene Christian |
1 |
Norman, Okla. |
|
Baylor |
3 |
Lamar |
2 |
Waco, Texas |
Ralph Garza, Jr. pitched a scoreless ninth inning to pick up his second save of the year. It was his eighth appearance of the year which puts him with the most in the Big Twelve.
Oklahoma struck first in the bottom of the second inning when Taylor Alspaugh sent a Garrett Demeyere pitch over the right field wall for the first home run of his career. An inning later Hunter Haley sent a solo shot over the right field wall to improve OU's lead to 2-0. It was the fourth homer of the season for Haley and his fifteenth run scored which puts him in a tie for the Big Twelve lead in both categories.
After four scoreless innings the Wildcats made the game interesting in the top of the eighth when Seth Spivey scored on a double steal to cut into Oklahoma's lead at 2-1. The Sooners responded by scoring two runs in the bottom half of the inning when Anthony Hermelyn and Mac James scored on a Keach Ballard single to put the game at the final score of 4-1. The eighth inning was the 25th time Oklahoma has scored multiple runs in an inning this season.
Oklahoma and Abilene Christian play the second game of their series on Thursday with a first pitch scheduled for 3:00.