The Oklahoma baseball team continued its winning ways in the second weekend of play. The Sooners took three of four from Illinois State.
NORMAN, Okla. — The No. 16/23 ranked Oklahoma baseball team continued its winning ways in the second weekend of play.
The Sooners hosted Missouri Valley Conference member Illinois State for a four-game series. The two played doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday to get the four-game set complete. Oklahoma came out victorious, winning three, despite the margin being very thin.
Head coach Skip Johnson got the weekend started with his deep pitching staff. Oklahoma notched two wins while only allowing nine hits and two runs in the doubleheader on Friday.
Ace Cade Cavalli provided seven innings in his first home start in game one, allowing six hits, a walk, a run and struck out nine. Wyatt Olds did much of the same in game two, throwing six innings in his first start of the year, allowed one hit, two walks, one run and also struck out nine. Jason Ruffcorn picked up two saves in two opportunities on Friday—one a one-run save, the other a three-run save.
Oklahoma won game one 2-1 and game two 4-1.
Saturday, though, had a lot less control.
The Sooners and Illinois State we’re tied up at two in the eighth inning of game three. A Peyton Graham sacrifice fly to right-center scored Tanner Tredaway to break the tie. Jaret Godman picked up a one-out save in the ninth inning with Oklahoma winning 3-2.
Levi Prater has a productive first start in game three. The junior southpaw was barreled up more than he’d like, but he finished with 6.1 innings pitched, allowing six hits, two walks, two runs and struck out seven.
The Missouri Valley Conference foes got on the board in game four. A grand slam and solo home run in back-to-back fashion against Oklahoma’s Dane Acker in the third inning of game four proved to be too much. Illinois State tacked on two more in the eighth to ensure the 7-5 win.
Acker had a quality start outside of that one big inning. In his home debut, the San Jacinto College native went seven innings, allowed six hits, five runs, three walks and struck out eight.
Against what was an above average at best pitching staff, Oklahoma managed to only hit .221 as a team, hit .119 with runners in scoring position and outscore Illinois State 14-11 in the four game series. The bright spot was center fielder Tanner Tredaway, who went 8-for-17 on the weekend with three doubles, two triples and a home run.
As expected, the Sooners staff dominated, holding Illinois State to .195 hitting as a team on the weekend and allowed six runs in 35-of-the-36 innings played.
Oklahoma has the week off before traveling to Houston for the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic. The Sooners will take on college baseball powers Arkansas, LSU and have a game against Missouri sandwiched in-between.
