The seventh inning was good to Oklahoma baseball this weekend. On Friday night the Sooners used three runs in the seventh to lead them to a 4-2 win over Cal State Bakersfield and in Saturday's first game of the two team's double-header OU posted 10 runs in the seventh frame to boost themselves to a series clinching 17-4 win.
Oklahoma got the three-game sweep in the nightcap of the double header. This time it was an eighth inning rally that put the Sooners ahead for good. Trailing 3-2 going into the frame, the Sooners, who had been error prone themselves, took advantage of mistakes made by the Road Runners to secure the game and the sweep. Josh Ake and Craig Aikin drew back-to-back one-out walks and then Anthony Hermelyn reached on error to load the bases. Sheldon Neuse and Mac James then delivered the tying and go ahead RBIs off a single to right field and sacrifice to center.
With a 4-3 lead Coach Hughes turned to Ralph Garza, Jr to close the game out, and he did so by striking out two batters in the ninth and getting another to pop out.
The win was Oklahoma's third in a row, after dropping their last two coming into the series, and puts the Sooners on a good pace heading into this Tuesday night when they host ORU. However, the story of the day was freshman Sheldon Neuse who did something OU baseball hasn't seen since 1987.
A seventh inning offensive explosion saw fifteen Oklahoma batters, ten runs scored, and eight total hits. Among the hits in that inning were 3-run home runs by Austin O'Brien and Neuse. Fast forward to the next inning and Neuse sent the first pitch he saw over the left field wall for another three-run blast. In back-to-back at bats Neuse delivered six RBI via the long ball. He would finish the game with eight total RBI, which is the most by a Sooner baseball player since Chris Ebright drove in nine against Oklahoma City University on March 18, 1987.
Neuse would finish the weekend 7-for-15 from the plate with two home runs and nine RBI, while the Sooners would break out of their offensive funk by plating 25 runs off 38 hits.
The winning pitchers for Saturday's games were Kindle Ladd (2-1) in the early game and Robert Tasin (3-2) in the second. Both came out of the bullpen to relieve the starters with Ladd going 4.1 scoreless innings and Tasin throwing a one-hit, scoreless eighth,
First pitch in Tuesday night's game against ORU is scheduled for 6:00.