Oklahoma baseball: Not a good weekend for the Sooners
By Chip Rouse
The three-game Oklahoma baseball series with Texas Tech this past weekend was another deep dip in a season burdened with peaks and valleys.
Playing at home at L. Dale Mitchell Park for the first time in 11 games, the Sooners (30-18, 8-10) were swept by the visiting Texas Tech Red Raiders. Tech begins the week just a half-game behind the first-place Baylor Bears in the Big 12 standings.
The sweep was the first suffered by Oklahoma this season and the first at home since 2015, when TCU took three of three games with the Sooners.
The 10th-ranked Red Raiders (33-14, 14-7) finished off the three-game sweep with an 8-4 win in the series finale on Sunday. And the game wasn’t as close as the final score might indicate. All four of the Oklahoma runs were scored in the final three innings.
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Texas Tech opened the series with a 10-6 win on Friday, and the Red Raiders followed that up with a 7-3 win the next afternoon, scoring six of the seven runs in the last three innings. Sophomore left-hander Levi Prater started the game for the Sooners and pitched brilliantly for six full innings, allowing just one run and three hits. But the bullpen couldn’t contain the Texas Tech offense over the final three frames.
Poor performance by the OU relief pitchers was the story of the weekend as far as the Sooners were concerned. In the three games against Texas Tech, Sooner relievers worked 11 2/3 innings and allowed 15 earned runs and a total of 21 hits. That was from the pitching staff that went into the series with the second best staff ERA in the Big 12 (3.31).
The Red Raiders outscored the Sooners in the series by the combined score of 25-13 and outhit them 38-26. Additionally, Oklahoma stranded 32 base runners in the series.
Junior catcher Brady Lindsly was the most productive of the Sooner hitters in the three games, going 6 for 12 with a pair of home runs and six runs batted in. The home runs were numbers three and four for the season for the Sooner backstop.
This coming weekend is the annual Bedlam baseball series with in-state rival Oklahoma State. The Cowboys are in third place in the Big 12 standings with a 10-8 league mark and a 28-16 record overall. Friday night’s game is in Stillwater. On Saturday the venue moves to the Brickyard in Oklahoma City. The series finale will be played in Norman on Sunday.