Oklahoma baseball stepped away from Big 12 play this past weekend to win two of three in a weekend home series with Pacific University and Lamar at L. Dale Mitchell Park.
The Sooners defeated Pacific 7-3 on Friday, scoring all seven of their runs between the fourth and sixth innings.
Lamar University rocked OU pitching for 14 runs on 20 hits on Friday and won a slugfest 14-11. Lamar scored single runs in the first, third and fourth innings to take an early 3-0 lead and then came the offensive explosion. Each team scored 11 runs over the next four innings, accounting for the 14-11 final score.
Oklahoma made it two in a row over Pacific with a 10-2 win on Saturday behind a strong pitching performance by starter David Sandlin, who went six innings, allowing just one earned run on five hits while striking out five and walking three. Sandlin earned in third win of the season to go with a couple of losses.
The Sooners (21-13, 4-5) return to action on Tuesday, hosting Wichita State before heading north to the Sunflower State for a three-game weekend series at Kansas.
Here are three big takeaways from the OU baseball weekend:
Tanner Tredaway packed a productive bat
The Oklahoma offense averaged 9.3 runs per game and 28 overall in its three nonconference contests over the weekend, and redshirt-senior center fielder Tanner Tredaway had six of them in 14 official plate appearances. Tredaway’s stat line for the three games included five runs batted in and a solo home run, his second of the season. His .321 batting average is second best on the team and he leads the Sooners with 30 RBI.
Sooners continue to show speed on the bases
Oklahoma stole 12 bases in the three games and was caught stealing three times. Ten of those stolen bases came in the Sooners 10-2 win over Pacific on Saturday, Nine different Sooners stole bases over the weekend, and three OU players stole two apiece in Saturday’s game alone (Peyton Graham, Jimmy Crooks and John Spikerman).
The Sooners have now stolen 80 bases on the season on 102 attempts, which ranks seventh nationally. Graham leads the team with 14 steals in 16 attempts, and Tredaway is 13 of 16 in that department.
Getting runners on base not a problem, getting them home another story
Oklahoma pounded out 30 hits in the three contests over the weekend but also left 27 runners stranded. The Sooners were good enough to get by on that against the two teams they faced this past weekend, but that kind of offensive inconsistency will cost them dearly against the higher-level competition they face in the Big 12.