In their final home game of the season, the Oklahoma Sooners came up short with a 10-5 loss in the rubber match against the Baylor Bears. The loss today, drops OU to 26-23 overall and 6-12 in the conference. Looking ahead, the potential of not making the Big XII Tournament could become a reality as TCU and Oklahoma St. remain on the schedule.
To start the afternoon, the Bears quickly jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first behind a Grayson Porter's three-run homer against Ralph Garza. However, the Sooners answered with two of their own in the bottom half of the inning before taking a 4-3 lead after two. Yet, Baylor managed to continue to push runs across the plate.
In the top of the third, Porter's sacrifice-fly secured the lead once again for BU as they never looked back eventually tallying up 16 hits. One subject talked about all weekend long has been the pullben of each ball club. The goal is to get the opponent to dip into their pen first and that exactly the strategy the Bears employed. With a bases loaded situation and no outs, Garza was pulled after in the top of the fourth inning. During that time, the righty gave up 8 hits and 8 earned runs.
In comparison, Oklahoma came up with 12 hits of their own as the Baylor pitcher, Drew Tolson, held a surging offense at bay through six innings by simply putting the ball into play and the letting the defense work. The tactic worked as Oklahoma was held scoreless in the final 5 innings.