Oklahoma baseball: Sooners KO’d 10-3 by Baylor in Big 12 Tournament
By Chip Rouse
The Big 12 Championship run for Oklahoma baseball ended the way it began three days ago: with a loss to Baylor.
The Sooners and Baylor met for the second time in the conference tournament, in the semifinal round on Saturday. The Bears (35-19), the No. 5 seed, scored seven runs over the final four innings to defeat No. 4 Oklahoma 10-3 at Chicksaw Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City and advance to the Big 12 championship game on Sunday.
The game was deadlocked at three after four innings, but Baylor broke it wide open with crooked-figure scoring efforts in the sixth, eighth and ninth innings. Interestingly, Oklahoma swept the three-game, regular-season series with Baylor, but couldn’t match up with the Bears in the postseason conference tournament.
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Senior right-hander Devon Perez got the start for the Sooners. He pitched into the fifth inning, allowing four earned runs on five hits. Unfortunately, five Oklahoma relievers followed Perez to the mound and couldn’t stop the bleeding.
Playing for the third straight game without arguably its two best players (Steele Walker and Kyler Murray), the Oklahoma offense managed just six hits off of two Baylor pitchers. Junior third baseman Brylie Ware recorded two hits in five at bats to lead the Sooners. Four different Oklahoma hitters accounted for the other four OU hits.
Baylor is 3-0 in the Big 12 Championship and headed to the championship game, where the Bears will play either No. 6 TCU or No. 7 West Virginia. Oklahoma was the last of the top four seeds to be eliminated.
The Sooners (36-23) will have to wait until Monday to find out their seeding and where they will play when the NCAA Baseball Championship gets underway next weekend.