Oklahoma Sooners baseball is back on the diamond on Sunday with a doubleheader against Arkansas State out of the Sun Belt. The series was originally set to be a traditional Friday-Sunday weekend set, but it was altered due to weather in the area.
The first game of the day was another slugfest for the Sooners, who have seen that a lot in the early part of the season as the offense has been dynamite as of late with the pitching continuing to struggle. Once again, Oklahoma ace pitcher Wyatt Olds had a rough day giving up six earned runs over his four innings pitched.
The Sooners faced a 7-0 deficit at the midway point of the third inning, again in a big early hole to attempt to climb their way out of. They would do a pretty darn good job it, though, as they came right back with a huge six-run bottom of the third to bring things to 7-6 behind home runs from first baseman Tyler Hardman and center fielder Tanner Tredaway.
But, unfortunately for Oklahoma, they couldn’t keep the Red Wolves offense down as they would put five more runs across in the fifth and sixth innings to gain a 12-6 lead.
The Sooners would not go down quietly though as they again managed to get the bats going and go on another rally. They would put up two runs in the seventh to cut the deficit to 12-8, before Arkansas State got those right back in the top of the 8th to push things to 14-8.
Oklahoma would immediately respond with five runs in the bottom half of the inning highlighted by home runs from third baseman Peyton Graham and catcher Jimmy Crooks. The game stood at 14-13 heading to the final inning.
The Red Wolves would add an insurance run that turned out to be large, as the Sooners could only muster up one run in the bottom of the ninth in response to fall by a 15-14 final. Needless to say, the pitching seriously failed Skip Johnson’s club in this one.
The team absolutely wouldn’t give up and continued to battle and rally all game long but it just ended up being not quite enough. Allowing 15 runs is obviously incredibly difficult to overcome and they almost found a way to do it, but it all goes down the same as another loss.
Something that may get lost in the all the offense and the loss, Hardman was absolutely sensational on the afternoon hitting for the cycle in his five hits with four RBIs. He showcased himself as one of the better hitters on the team in this one, albeit in a losing effort.
Now at 6-7, they’ll try to keep the bats going but figure out the pitching in the second end of the doubleheader in Norman.
[lawrence-related id=26796]