Oklahoma baseball: Tyler Hardman earns Big 12 Player of Week honors
By Chip Rouse
Completing a three-game home series with Arkansas State on Monday, all in a little over 24 hours, Oklahoma baseball is back in action on Tuesday against another team from the Natural State.
The Sooners, fresh off of a series win over Arkansas State, take that momentum to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where they will face an entirely different kind of challenge in taking on the top-ranked Arkansas Razorbacks.
Junior first baseman Tyler Hardman wielded the heavy lumber in the Arkansas State series, and the Sooners will need his hot bat to continue against Arkansas. The Sooners scored 35 runs on 44 hits in the three games with Arkansas State, with Hardman going a sensational11 for 12 along with 11 runs and 5 RBI.
Hardman hit for the cycle as the Sooners split a doubleheader on Sunday and he stroked his second home run in the series with a solo shot in Monday’s 12-6 OU win in the series finale. He is the first Oklahoma player to hit for the cycle in a game ( single, double, triple and home run) in a decade. Cameron Seitzer did it last, in 2010, against another Arkansas team, Arkansas Pine Bluff.
His third-inning HR was followed by a fourth-inning walk, extending his on-base streak to16 consecutive at bats. The Sooner first baseman grounded out in the fifth, unfortunately leaving him just two shy of tying the NCAA record of 18.
Hardman’s weekend performance earned him Big 12 honors as the Baseball Player of the Week.
The two weekend wins over Arkansas State raised the Oklahoma season record above .500 at 8-7.
Oklahoma will host Houston for a three-game series this weekend at L. Dale Mitchell Park. The Sooners begin Big 12 play a week from Friday on the road at Texas.