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Oklahoma baseball: Sooner sophomore earns Big 12 Pitcher of Week honors

By Chip Rouse

Riverside baseball player Aaron Aguilar, one of the team's top batters, outfielder and pitcher Tuesday, May 18, 2021, at the high school baseball field in El Paso.MAIN_Riverside Aaron Aguilar 001
Riverside baseball player Aaron Aguilar, one of the team's top batters, outfielder and pitcher Tuesday, May 18, 2021, at the high school baseball field in El Paso.MAIN_Riverside Aaron Aguilar 001 /
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Oklahoma baseball starting pitcher Chaz Martinez made his second start of the season on Sunday, holding Northwestern (Louisiana) State to no runs on just three hits over seven innings while striking out 14 of the 23 batters he faced in a 5-1 Sooner win.

On Monday, the Sooner sophomore southpaw from San Pedro, California, was named Big 12 Pitcher of the Week for the second week of the college baseball season. He was also named one of Collegiate Baseball’s National Player of the Week

In two starts this season, Martinez has allowed only seven hits and one earned run in 11 2/3 innings and recorded 19 strikeouts.

The left-hander’s 14 strikeouts against the Demons of Northwestern State were the most by an Oklahoma pitcher since Levi Prater punched out 15 batters in 2019 against Missouri State. In the second and third frames of the Northwestern State game, Martinez fanned six consecutive hitters.

“Chaz set the tone,” said Sooner head coach Skip Johnson in his postgame comments published in The (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman after OU’s 5-1 victory over Northwestern State in Sunday’s series final. “It was really good to get some runs for him, instead of just grinding it out.”

Martinez’s performance was one of several strong outings by Oklahoma starting pitchers over the weekend. Collectively, OU pitchers fanned 40 Northwestern State hitters over the three days.

This weekend, the Sooners will be in Houston for three games at Minute Maid Park (home of MLB’s Houston Astros) for games with No. 7 LSU, UCLA and No. 17 Tennessee. It will be the third weekend in a row OU has played a weekend series of games in a major league ballpark.

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