Oklahoma baseball is hot. Red hot.
The Sooners entered Sunday on a five-game winning streak and with the bats putting up big numbers every single time out, and they did just that again in the third contest of a three-game set with Houston. Skip Johnson’s club plated another 12 runs en route to a run-rule victory in seven innings.
Left-hander Braden Carmichael earned himself the Sunday start after continually being a very reliable arm for Oklahoma, and he was just that again in this game. He tossed three shutout innings to open the game only allowing three hits and striking out four. He would go on to get the win to move his record to an impressive 4-0 to start the year.
The Sooners would start their scoring in the bottom of the third putting up four runs on an RBI-double by catcher Jimmy Crooks, a run scoring on a fielder’s choice and a two-run moonshot off the bat of second baseman Conor McKenna.
The Cougars would get a couple of those runs back in the fifth inning off of Jaret Godman, but that is where their scoring would freeze for the remainder of the afternoon with Godman tossing a clean sixth before Luke Taggart finished things off in the seventh.
Oklahoma would do the rest of their damage in the fifth and sixth innings putting up eight runs combined in the two frames. Designated hitter Logan Kohler picked up a three-RBI double in the fifth to greatly extend the lead before shortstop Brandon Zaragoza came through with the first homer of his long Sooners career to make the score 9-3 through five.
They would put up three more in the sixth, highlighted by a home run off the bat of Crooks who continues to do nothing but pick up hits. Oklahoma wouldn’t hit again due to the Sunday run rule, winning the game behind 12 runs in just six offensive innings.
The win is the Sooners’ sixth straight and moves them to 12-7 on the season. The bats absolutely will not stop raking and the pitching staff is seemingly starting to really find it too. This was a dominant weekend for Johnson’s team against a solid opponent, as the confidence is really starting to grow.
Oklahoma will now head south for the beginning for five straight road games starting with Texas State on Wednesday night before conference play begins with rival Texas next weekend in Austin.