Stormin in Norman
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Oklahoma baseball: Sooners win series over Central Florida

By Chip Rouse

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 13: A base honoring Mothers Day is seen on the field before a game between the New York Yankees and the Oakland Athletics at Yankee Stadium on May 13, 2018 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - MAY 13: A base honoring Mothers Day is seen on the field before a game between the New York Yankees and the Oakland Athletics at Yankee Stadium on May 13, 2018 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) /
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Oklahoma baseball took a breather from Big 12 baseball over the weekend, going out of conference and posting a series win over Central Florida.

The Sooners dropped the opening game in the series, 5-4, in 14 innings, but outscored the Knights of UCF by a combined score of 14-7 in games two and three to take the series two games to one. It was Oklahoma’s eighth series win of the season, four of which have been against Big 12 opponents.

The 14-inning loss in game one was the Sooners’ longest game of the season. OU took a brief 4-3 lead in the top half of the 14rh, but UCF rallied for two runs of its own in the bottom half of the inning for the walk-off victory. The last time an OU baseball game went longer than 11 innings was in 2014.

Despite the one-run loss on Friday, seven Oklahoma pitchers fanned a season-high 19 Central Florida hitters.

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Junior center fielder Kyler Murray, who is expected to be the starting quarterback for OU in the fall, drove in four runs in game two on Saturday, three coming in the first inning on his eighth home run of the season. Oklahoma widened its lead to 7-0 after 5 1/2 innings and held on from there for a 7-3 win.

Murray was the Sooner hero again in the series finale on Sunday. His three-run home run broke a 2-2 tie in the third inning to open up a 5-2 OU advantage. The Sooners added single runs in the seventh and eighth innings, and Central Florida finished off the scoring with two meaningless runs in the home half of the ninth but the rally fell three runs short.

Sunday’s win was the fourth time this season that Oklahoma has won a game despite having fewer hits than its opponent.

Freshman left-hander Levi Prater was the Sooner starter on Saturday. He went 4 2/3 innings, allowing two runs on three hits and striking out six, but did not qualify for the win. Devon Perez pitched two innings, yielding no runs and two hits, in relief and was credited with the win, his fifth of the season.

In Sunday’s series finale, sophomore right-handed starter Nathan Wiles allowed two runs on five hits in 5 2/3 innings and picked up the win.

Murray had a highly productive series, going 5 for 13 at the plate, with two three-run home runs, two doubles, eight runs batted in and five runs scored.

Oklahoma is 25-7 this season when scoring first. The Sooners scored first in both of the games they won in this series. The winning percentage gets even better when OU leads after seven innings. The Sooners are 31-2 in the latter scenario.

Junior left fielder Cade Harris worked two walks in Sunday’s game, giving him 55 walks this season. That is the most by an OU player in a single season in the Big 12 era and ranks seventh in school history in one season.

The Sooners (33-19, 13-8) return to Big 12 action next weekend with three games at next-to-last-place Kansas (23-27, 6-14).

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