Oklahoma Sooners Baseball: Sooners Suffer Bedlam Sweep

The Oklahoma Sooners (34-20, 12-11 Big 12) stranded eight baserunners and couldn’t take advantage of opportunity in a Saturday night 5-2 loss to the Oklahoma State Cowboys (26-25, 8-14 Big 12) that gave OSU a sweep in a rain-shortened series.

Originally scheduled to play on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the two teams were forced to finish Friday’s game and play a final one on Saturday after two days of stormy weather ripped through Oklahoma. Always a neutral-site series, the games were played at OKC’s Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.

On Friday, the teams made it to the middle of the fifth before the delay began. OSU scored once in the top of the first, but the Sooners took the lead with two runs in the fourth inning on RBI hits from Austin O’Brien and Ben Hollas.

But the game got away from Jake Irvin in the fifth when he walked two Cowboys and allowed another two hits for four OSU runs. The game moved to Saturday with OSU up 5-2.

OSU had tacked on another four runs by the bottom of the ninth, but a Cade Harris homer helped keep OU in the game. Trailing by five with one down in the bottom of the ninth, Harris and Jack Flansburg worked walks and Renae Martinez hit a single to load the bases. Steele Walker nearly managed a grand slam but settled for a double, scoring three runs, but a Brylie Ware strikeout ended the game and the OU rally.

On Sunday, the Sooners couldn’t answer three early runs from the Cowboys. Kyle Tyler didn’t make it out of the first inning for OU and had to be relieved by Devon Perez to finish the frame. Perez ended up throwing 3.2 innings of one-run ball and Connor Berry threw two scoreless, but the OU offense managed only two one-run innings and couldn’t score runners from second — with no one out — in the first or second innings.

The series loss will jeopardize OU’s hopes of hosting a regional, but a strong showing at the Big 12 Tournament may still make it possible. The tourney begins on Wednesday.