Oklahoma baseball limped into Sunday’s series finale against No. 11/12/22/25 TCU needing a win about as bad as you could need one. After getting clobbered 17-6 by the Horned Frogs Saturday night, the Sooners had dropped six of their last seven games and had fallen all the way back down to .500 on the season.
Needing a good outing desperately, Skip Johnson turned to left-hander Braden Carmichael who did well in a similar spot just a week ago to help Oklahoma salvage the series and avoid a sweep against Texas. He was solid in this one, giving his team a chance to win, but got burnt late perhaps being left in the game just an inning too long.
Carmichael started off strong tossing three scoreless frames to open things up. Meanwhile, the Sooners were able to plate three runs in the second and third innings on a sacrifice fly from second baseman Conor McKenna and a two-run home run by first baseman Tyler Hardman to hold a 3-0 lead heading to the fourth.
It was at that point where Carmichael would run into serious problems for the first time, allowing the Horned Frogs to knot things up with three runs of their own on a two-run double by shortstop Tommy Sacco and an RBI single by left fielder Porter Brown.
The game would remain even at 3-3 into the seventh inning when TCU’s bats would come alive again on a trio of home runs. The first was a two-run shot off the bat of Brown to make it 5-3 and knock Carmichael out of the game. Oklahoma would then turn to one of their best relievers in right-hander Carson Carter, but he would serve up a pair of solo home runs to right fielder Phillip Sikes and third baseman Brayden Taylor to make the lead 7-3.
7-3 would go on to be the final score as the Horned Frogs completed the sweep of Oklahoma in Norman, dropping the Sooners below .500 on the season at 13-14 and just 1-5 in Big 12 play.
This rough patch for Oklahoma has gotten to a very tough point for the team, as this is their seventh loss in the last eight games. To say they have to find a way to turn things around soon would be a pretty big understatement, as their hopes for making much of this season are starting to hang on by a thread.
Granted playing Texas, Oklahoma State and TCU is certainly a difficult seven-game stretch on the schedule for just about any team in the country…but you still have to find a way to win more than once. You just have to. The next week is easily the biggest of the season to this point for the Sooners as they simply have to pick up wins to try to turn things around before any hope of NCAA Tournament berth is gone.
Luckily for the Sooners, they have many home games still coming up over the month of April to try and stock pile some wins and get momentum back. Next up is a date with in-state foe Oral Roberts on Tuesday night back at L. Dale Mitchell Park.