Stormin in Norman
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Oklahoma Baseball: Bedlam Loss Extends Sooners’ Losing String to Four

By Chip Rouse

Dec 31, 2015; Miami Gardens, FL, USA;A general view of Oklahoma Sooners helmets in the third quarter of the 2015 CFP Semifinal at the Orange Bowl at Sun Life Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 31, 2015; Miami Gardens, FL, USA;A general view of Oklahoma Sooners helmets in the third quarter of the 2015 CFP Semifinal at the Orange Bowl at Sun Life Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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How quickly the tide can turn. After winning seven of nine, the fate of Oklahoma baseball has just as quickly turned in the opposite direction.

Just one week ago, the Sooners were sitting three games above .500 and had won two consecutive Big 12 series. But that was then, and this is now.

A one-run Bedlam loss on Wednesday to in-state rival Oklahoma State – and at home, no less – marked a fourth consecutive loss for the Sooners, and the road doesn’t get any easier with a very good West Virginia team coming to Norman this weekend.

Scoring runs has been a major weakness all season for OU, but it has been particularly acute in Big 12 play. The Norman nine are averaging a Big 12-worst .230 average at the plate and have scored the fewest runs, averaging barely over three per game, midway through the conference season.

OU jumped out to an early 1-0 lead over Oklahoma State on Wednesday and held on to that slim advantage until the top of the sixth, when the Cowboys plated a couple of runs to take the lead. OSU added two more runs in its half of the eighth, and that pretty well sealed the Sooners’ fate. Oklahoma rallied for two ninth-inning runs, but came up a run short, falling 4-3.

Oklahoma scored on back-to-back doubles by Ben Hollas and Sheldon Neuse in the opening frame, but managed just two more hits the rest of the way until the brief uprising in the ninth.

“He’s a talented freshman who throws a lot of strikes…That was a good outing.” —Pete Hughes, OU head coach, on Sooner pitcher Jake Irvin

The Sooners squandered a strong pitching performance by freshman right-hander Jake Irvin, who yielded six hits in five-and-a-third innings of work and recorded 10 strikeouts, including striking out the side in the first two innings.

“He gets better every outing,” said Sooner head coach Pete Hughes about his talented freshman hurler in his postgame comments. “He’s a talented freshman who throws a lot of strikes and controlled his adrenaline and got 10 strikeouts with only one walk. That was a good outing.”

Oklahoma is now 4-12 against the Cowboys in the last four seasons, with eight of the last 11 losses by three runs or less.

The Sooners are 4-5 in one-run games this season and 6-9 in games decided by two runs or less.

Despite the disappointing home loss, there were some other positive things to report for the Crimson and Cream in this game:

  • Starter Jake Irvin’s six consecutive strikeouts to start the game against Oklahoma is the first time a Sooner pitcher has accomplished that feat since J.R. Robinson against Kansas in 2010.
  • Irvin, in his first season at Oklahoma, has struck out the side four times this season.
  • Shortstop Sheldon Neuse had two of OU’s six hits vs. Oklahoma State, both of them doubles. It was his 17th multi-hit game of the season for the Sooners’ leading hitter and the fifth time in his collegiate career he has hit two doubles in a game.
  • Another OU freshman, Steele Walker, posted his seventh multi-hit game of the season with a pair of singles in the loss to Oklahoma State.
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