Stormin in Norman
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Oklahoma baseball rewind: Offense explodes in weekend finale

By Chip Rouse

ST PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - APRIL 11: Gleyber Torres #25 of the New York Yankees hits a RBI single during the eighth inning to tie the game at 4 to 4 at Tropicana Field on April 11, 2021 in St Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)
ST PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - APRIL 11: Gleyber Torres #25 of the New York Yankees hits a RBI single during the eighth inning to tie the game at 4 to 4 at Tropicana Field on April 11, 2021 in St Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images) /
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An Oklahoma baseball sweep over Kansas would have been preferred, but winning two of three is the next best thing.

The Sooners took games one and three at home over the weekend against Kansas (18-13, 2-7) to improve to one game over .500 (16-15) for the season and move out of last place and into a sixth-place tie with Baylor in the Big 12 standings.

Sophomore right fielder Brett Squires hit a three-run homer down the right-field foul line in the fifth inning to break up a close game and fuel OU to a 10-4 win. The victory was the Sooners’ sixth straight over the visiting Jayhawks and also marked OU head coach Skip Johnson’s 100th Oklahoma win.

The top three hitters in the OU lineup accounted for 10 of the Sooners’ 14 hits and seven of the team’s 14 runs in a 14-2 Oklahoma runaway in the rubber game of the series on Sunday. OU scored five times in the third and six more in the fifth to put the game away.

Because of the run-rule advantage by the Sooners, Sunday’s game was stopped after seven innings.

Junior Tanner Tredaway was 4 for 5 on Sunday. He was followed by redshirt freshman Jimmy Crooks, who had a double and two singles in three official plate appearances, and the Big 12’s leading hitter, junior Tyler Hardman, who was three for four, including a two-run fence-clearing blast in the fourth, his eighth round-tripper of the season.

Meanwhile, Kansas capitalized on a 16-hit attack to edge OU 8-7 in 10 innings in the middle game of the series on Saturday. The Jayhawks jumped out in front with a five-run third inning. The Sooners scored four times in the home half of the fourth to pull within one.

A two-run homer by Jimmy Crooks in the seventh brought the Sooners back within one, 7-6, and a solo round-tripper by Peyton Graham the next inning tied the score at seven, But KU’s James Cosentino greeted OU closer Jason Ruffcorn with a solo blast of his own in the top half of the 10th, which proved to be the winning run. Ruffcorn was in his second inning of relief in the 10th and took the loss, his first of the season against two wins.

The Sooners are back in action on Tuesday and Wednesday with home games at L. Dale Mitchell Park against Texas Southern. On Friday, Oklahoma will head to Manhattan, Kansas, to take on Kansas State (17-14, 2-7, which is tied with Kansas on the bottom rung of the Big 12 standings.

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