Oklahoma baseball returned to the home diamond on Saturday afternoon for the second of a three-game series against Big 12 opponent Kansas.
After taking the series opener on Friday night, the Sooners entered with a glimmer of momentum having taken two in a row after the rough patch previously. This game provided another opportunity to keep things rolling on home soil.
Getting the start for Oklahoma was left-hander Jake Bennett who didn’t have one his better outings of the season. After a solid first couple of scoreless innings, the third frame would prove to be his undoing.
Kansas would strike for five runs in the inning, capped off by a big three-run home run by catcher Anthony Tulimero. After the Sooners were turned away quietly in the bottom half of the frame, the Jayhawks took a 5-0 lead into the fourth.
It was at this point the Oklahoma bats would come alive with five straight hits to score four runs. Catcher Jimmy Crooks got things started with a moonshot home run to right field to get the Sooners on the board. Right fielder Brett Squires and second baseman Conor McKenna would both then later pick up doubles that scored three more runs collectively. Kansas was clinging to a 5-4 lead through four.
After both teams went scoreless in the fifth, the Jayhawks would tack on two more in the sixth on an RBI double by center fielder Tavian Josenberger – who would later come in to score on a grounder to first base. Josenberger was initially called out on a close play at the plate, but after review he was deemed safe and Kansas got another insurance run to lead things 7-4.
After trading scoreless turns at bat, the Sooners would draw closer in the bottom of the seventh on another home run to right field by Crooks – this one a two-run shot to cut the deficit to 7-6. Oklahoma would then get a couple more men on with two outs for the piping hot Squires, but his hard hit ball found the glove of Jayhawks right fielder Jack Wagner to end the threat.
After a lock down eighth inning from right-hander Carson Carter, the Sooners would then knot things up in the bottom half of the inning on a squeaker solo home run to right field off the bat of right fielder Peyton Graham. The game would head to the ninth all square at 7-7.
Closer Jason Ruffcorn would enter to try and keep things even and he would do just do that. After a deep fly ball to center for the first out, he would strike out the next two batters to send things to the bottom of the ninth with his team needing just a run to walk it off.
Crooks would work a one-out walk to get a man on base, but first baseman Tyler Hardman and left fielder Diego Muniz were unable to move him around for the winning run. The game would need an extra frame to determine a winner.
Ruffcorn would come back out to pitch the tenth, and would make a rare mistake offering up a solo home run to Kansas second baseman James Cosentino to put the Jayhawks in front 8-7. He would limit the damage there, but Oklahoma would head to the bottom half of the inning needing a run to stay alive. Unfortunately for Skip Johnson’s club, they weren’t able to do that being turned away 1-2-3 to fall in ten innings.
This is a pretty tough all-around loss for the Sooners in a game where they were so close to breaking through all day long. They played from behind essentially the entire game but always were threatening and never felt out of it, even after balling behind 5-0. But alas, they come up short and drop one that will be hard to swallow.
Now at 15-15 and 2-6 in conference play, Oklahoma will desperately look to take the rubber match tomorrow back at L. Dale Mitchell Park at 2:00 p.m. CT.
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