It isn't pressure that defines a person or a team but rather how they handle the said pressure is what people will talk about. Oklahoma hasn't swept a conference opponent in over two years and heading into game three against the Kansas Jayhawks on Saturday afternoon they were primed to do just that. It sure wasn't going to come easy though as Kansas pressured OU's bullpen with a barrage of late inning runs.
Oklahoma held a 4-1 lead through the first three innings and seemed to be in control with a 6-2 lead after the sixth. That's when things began to get a bit shaky as the Jayhawks pelted OU's relievers for five runs over the seventh and eighth innings. Finding themselves in a familiar situation, the Sooners were trailing Kansas heading to the bottom of the ninth with the Jayhawks putting Stephen Villines on the mound to close it out. Oklahoma was able to rally against Villines, one of the Big 12's best closers, on Thursday night for an extra innings win and now faced the challenge of doing it once more.
Kolbey Carpenter came through in the clutch once again with a ninth inning single to right field, scoring Hunter Haley, to tie the game at 7-7 and send it to extras. Sheldon Neuse took the mound in the top of the ninth, stepping away from his usual short stop position, to get the final out and then stayed on to pitch the tenth. In his 1.1 innings of work he allowed just one hit and struck out three batters to pick up his first win of the season.
It was Taylor Alspaugh who provided Oklahoma's final hit in the series with a walk-off single in the bottom of the tenth to score Josh Ake and give the Sooners a series sweep with an 8-7 win. It didn't come easy for OU but two extra inning walk-offs set up by late inning rallies aided them to the first sweep of a conference opponent in the Pete Hughes era.
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