Oklahoma baseball: Sooners drop third consecutive Big 12 series
By Chip Rouse
For a third consecutive weekend, Oklahoma baseball lost a three-game Big 12 series after winning the opening game.
The Sooners lost a heartbreaking 3-2 contest to Baylor in 12 innings on Sunday, suffering their sixth loss in the last nine games against a Big 12 opponent.
Oklahoma opened conference play with a three-game sweep of Kansas, giving the Sooners a 21-4 overall record and a No. 19 ranking in the USA Today College Baseball Top 25 Coaches Poll. That was March 25. Since then, OU has gone 4-8 with five of the eight losses decided by two runs or less.
The Sooners are battling and playing hard and their starting pitching has been solid, but they can’t seem to win on Saturday or Sunday after taking the opening game of a Big 12 series the past three weekends. OU defeated West Virginia 2-1 in the first of three games at West Virginia, but the Mountaineers bounced back to take games two and three in that series.
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Next, Oklahoma hosted TCU for three games in Norman. Again, the Sooners won the first game in the series, 7-6, but that was it, with the Horned Frogs prevailing the next two games and winning the series.
This past weekend, it was OU winning again in the opening game of the series at Baylor, but the Sooners were unable to generate much offense in the final two games of the series and they ended up suffering their third straight series loss.
Despite losing eight of its last 12 games, Oklahoma continues to get strong performances from its starters. The Sooners lead the Big 12 and rank 15th nationally with a staff ERA of 3.55. Freshman Ben Abram is one of two Big 12 pitchers with six wins and three other OU starters (Cade Cavalli, Nathan Wiles and Levi Prater) all have five wins.
The Sooners are also getting strong performances at the back end of the bullpen. Closer Jason Ruffcorn has appeared in 22 games and has a Big 12-best eight saves, while freshman Wyatt Olds has recorded 18 scoreless innings in his last 22 appearances, including games one and three against Baylor.
Junior shortstop Brandon Zaragoza led Oklahoma in hitting last week with six hits, a .375 average and four runs scored. He has reached base safely in his last 10 games.
Senior Brylie Ware drove in seven runs this past week — including a double, triple and home run — and scored four times himself. The OU third baseman just missed what could have been a game-winning home run on Sunday when Baylor center fielder Richard Cunningham snared his long drive at the top of the wall in right center field with the score tied in the eighth inning.
The schedule doesn’t get any easier for Oklahoma, which is in the midst of playing 11 games away from home. The Sooners will play at Oral Roberts on Tuesday. The Golden Eagles defeated OU 4-2 in 11 innings two weeks ago in Norman. They go out of conference this weekend with three games at Minnesota of the Big Ten.
Of further concern, looking down the road: Thirteen of Oklahoma’s remaining 17 regular-season games are against