Oklahoma baseball is going through it right now as they dropped their series opener against No. 11/12/22/25 TCU on Friday night 11-7 for their fifth loss in the last six games.
Getting the start was No. 1 starter Wyatt Olds (1-3) who continued to struggle through his largely disappointing season to this point. He allowed seven runs and couldn’t quite complete five innings, suffering the loss in the process.
While Olds was having a tough time allowing those seven runs, the Sooner bats were off to a slow start of their own. They struggled to string hits together against TCU left-hander Russell Smith as he blanked Oklahoma through five innings.
The sixth frame is where the Sooners would finally break through on a two-run home run by first baseman Tyler Hardman to cut into the deficit a little bit and make it 7-2. The Horned Frogs, however, would get those two runs right back in the top of the seventh on a two-run homer of their own by first baseman Gene Wood.
Keeping the home run derby going was Oklahoma designated hitter Diego Muniz in the bottom half of the inning, as he hit a solo shot to move the game to 9-3. The Sooners would then tack on two more in the eighth inning on RBI singles by center fielder Tanner Tredaway and shortstop Brandon Zaragoza.
After TCU put up two more runs in the top of the ninth, Hardman would go deep for his second two-run blast of the day but that would be far from enough as the Horned Frogs would hang on and win 11-7. The loss drops Oklahoma to just one game above .500 at 13-12 and puts them now in a little bit of a hole in the conference standings at just 1-3.
The story of the game continues to be the struggles of Olds, who has simply not been as effective as he was a year ago. While the ability is obviously there and the room for growth is clear, his struggles have been one of the bigger hinderances toward the Sooners being able to live up to what they had hoped to be coming into the year. They have to find a way to get him going, and soon.
Game two of the series will be back at L. Dale Mitchell Park tomorrow evening at 4:00 p.m. CT.
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