Oklahoma Sooners Baseball: Sooners end weekend with 10-inning, walk-off win over Valparaiso

The Oklahoma Sooners ended the weekend in victorious fashion, but Sunday’s final game certainly didn’t lack for drama. OU needed a walk-off sac fly from sophomore Brendan Zaragoza to take down Valparaiso in the bottom of the 10th at L. Dale Mitchell Park. OU went 3-1 on the weekend in games against Valparaiso and Holy Cross, with its lone loss coming to Valpo on Saturday. The Sooners now sit at 4-4 overall.

OU starter Kyle Tyler pitched 5.1 innings for the Sooners, allowing five hits and no runs – a much-improved effort in comparison to his rough outing out in South Carolina last weekend. Levi Prater, Austin Hansen, Braidyn Fink and starting DH Cade Cavalli carried Oklahoma the rest of the way, allowing a pair of runs and six hits between them in 4.2 combined innings of work. OU pitchers stranded 13 runners on the day.

Tyler got into a pair of jams early as he loaded the bases in both the first and second innings. However, Tyler got out of each of the jams to keep things level. Following the second of these close calls, Kyler Murray opened the bottom of the second inning with a double down the left-field line. Brady Lindsly then squirted one by the shortstop to put runners at the corners and put the Sooners in business. Two batters later, Kyle Mendenhall brought Murray home on a sacrifice fly to right.

In the bottom of the fourth, Brady Lindsly tripled to deep center field, and Mendenhall again came up big with an RBI when he singled through the left side to make it 2-0.

Valparaiso got on the board in the top of the sixth when Riley Dent hit one over the head of Cade Harris in left for an RBI double. With the score at 2-1 in favor of the Sooners, Jayden Eggimann took one deep to center only for the fleet-footed Murray to track it down and end the inning.

Valpo then tied it up in the top of the ninth when Chase Dawson and Blake Billinger got to Connor Berry with a pair of doubles.

After going down in order in the bottom of the ninth, Oklahoma loaded the bases for Brandon Zaragoza with one out in the bottom of the 10th. Zaragoza then lined one to deep right for the sacrifice fly, bringing Cade Cavalli home for the walk-off win.

The Sooners travel south to face Dallas Baptist on Tuesday before returning home for a weekend series against a really good Alabama team.