Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners drop series opener at Rice, 8-1

The weekend is off to a bit of a rough start, as the Oklahoma Sooners (11-3) dropped the series opener to the Rice Owls (7-8) by a score of 8-1.

Cade Cavalli (2-1) got the start on the hill for OU, going 3.2 innings while allowing six hits, five runs (four earned), three walks and throwing two wild pitches. In relief Jaret Godman went 2.1 with two hits and an earned run while striking out a pair. Ben Abram (1.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 K, 2 WP), Jake Terry (0.0 IP, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 HP) and Ryan Madden (1.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER) also made appearances. All in all, it was a forgettable night for the OU pitching staff, which totaled four wild pitches and three hit batsmen.

At the plate, the Sooners totaled three hits, two of which came from Brady Harlan, who earned his first extra-base hit of the season with a third-inning double.

The Owls got on the board in the bottom of the first, and they did so without recording a base hit. After Trei Cruz and Braden Comeaux reached on a walk and an HBP, respectively, the two were sacrificed over to bring Andrew Dunlap to the plate. During Dunlap’s at-bat, Cruz reached home on a wild pitch to make it 1-0. Rice added to the lead in the second when a Bradley Gneitman infield single scored Cade Edwards from third.

Rice really opened things up in the bottom of the fourth, as the Owls recorded three runs on four hits, which ended the evening for Cavalli. Oklahoma was able to get something going in the top of the fifth with Jordan McKenna’s bloop double, which came off the glove of Dunlap. On the next at-bat, Brady Harlan singled up the middle to bring him home and put the Sooners on the board.

An odd series of events occurred in the bottom of the sixth when Rice nine-hole hitter Aaron Beaulaurier was hit by a pitch. After it was determined that he didn’t make an effort to get out of the way, he was sent back to the plate with a 0-2 count. Someone in the press box said something along the lines of “Watch him hit one over the left field wall”, which, of course, he did to make it 6-1 in favor of the Owls.

The Owls added one more on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh to make it 7-1, and they then added another run on yet another wild pitch in the eighth.

OU will be back in action Saturday at 2 p.m. CT before finishing things out on Sunday at 1 p.m. CT.