Oklahoma Sooners Baseball: OU Wins Baylor Series With Sunday Shutout

The Oklahoma Sooners (23-5, 2-1) took the weekend series over Baylor (18-6, 2-4) in Waco by shutting out the Bears in a 3-0 Sunday rubber game win.

Nathan Wiles earned the Sunday W for OU after 4.1 innings of perilous, but ultimately scoreless, pitching. Wiles was able to get out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning and was rarely challenged for the rest of outing, giving up 5 hits and 3 walks with 5 strikeouts.

All three of Oklahoma’s runs came on a three-run Kyle Mendenhall bomb in the second inning, driving in Steele Walker and Brylie Ware in the game’s deciding shot.

The series began on Friday night with a resounding 11-3 OU victory. Steele Walker and Blake Brewster finally got Oklahoma on the board in the 6th in that one, blasting home runs to give OU the lead.

Dylan Grove made his first Friday start of the year and promptly walked the bases loaded to begin the game. He got out of the first with just 2 runs allowed but ended up pitching only 3 innings. The Sooners bullpen took care of the rest.

Saturday started on a high note as Kyler Murray returned to the OU lineup after missing about a month with a strained hamstring (Murray finished the weekend 1-7 with a walk and a stolen base). But the OU bats were completely silenced by Bears starter Montana Parsons, who threw 7 innings of scoreless ball.

The Baylor offense, meanwhile, tagged OU starter Devon Perez for 4 runs and picked up another 3 from the Sooners bullpen. The game ended with a 7-0 Baylor shutout, setting up the decisive Sunday contest.

Oklahoma went 2-2 in its first week in the Baseball America rankings, which may or may not be good enough to keep them there. But the Sooners absolutely demonstrated that they can hang with the Big 12’s best (Baylor was No. 20 at BA) and showed they’ll be a factor in the conference race this season.

The Sooners return to Norman on Friday, taking on Texas Tech at 6:30.