NORMAN, Okla. — The weather was new to players from San Diego, California, and it worked out in Oklahoma’s favor.
When the first pitch was thrown, it was 56 degrees with the winds howling out of the south 20 miles per hour or faster. By games end, it was colder with heavy, but playable, rain.
In the bottom of the tenth-inning, the Aztecs had two of their five errors, with the last one costing San Diego State (10-6) the series in a result of a walk-off series win by No. 11/15 Oklahoma (13-4).
FINAL—
San Diego State 8#Sooners 9
Oklahoma takes the series on a throwing error, the Aztecs sixth of the game, by San Diego State: pic.twitter.com/zWadGk4xh5
— Kegan Reneau (@KeganReneau) March 8, 2020
“Biggest thing that I got is that baseball is game of imperfection and it showed today,” said head coach Skip Johnson after his teams 9-8 walk-off win and series win. “It really ultimately came down to three hard (running out a batted ball to first base) … you talk about play hard, run hard 90s … if their foot comes up or they throw it in the dirt, it was huge when you run those hard 90 and that is really what ultimately separated the game at the end of the day.
“Sundays are always kind of a crazy day in college baseball it seems, so I like the spirit of our team and us coming back and finding a way to tie the game and ending up finding a way to win the game.”
Oklahoma struck early and often in the series finale.
The Sooners put up a crooked number in the first inning thanks to three-straight singles and a two-out, two RBI single by freshman center fielder Connor Beichler. Another run came through in the second and two more in the third with a sacrifice fly by Diego Muniz and a two-out RBI single by Conor McKenna to jump out to a 6-1 lead.
Dane Acker took a step back from throwing a no-hitter in his last start, as expected, by only making it 4.2 innings, allowing eight hits and four runs.
San Diego State took a one-run lead in the eighth after four singles and two sacrifice flies off of Wyatt Olds. Then, the Sooners took advantage of an error in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game and those two in the tenth to get the win.
Oklahoma got two shutdown innings off of Jason Ruffcorn in the ninth and tenth innings—his first appearance since recording a save against Arkansas eight days ago. The Sooners closer finished with the win, allowing no baserunners, no walks and striking out four, including striking out the side in the tenth.
Johnson got production from the bottom of his lineup as McKenna and Brandon Zaragoza went 4-for-7 combined with a walk, a run and an RBI in the series finale.
Oklahoma returns to action on Tuesday night against UT-Arlington before heading out west to California for a four-game weekend series against Cal Poly.
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