Oklahoma baseball rewind: Sooner bats sizzle in pair of wins over K-State
By Chip Rouse
A four-run eighth-inning rally on Sunday was all that stood between Oklahoma baseball and a second consecutive Big 12 series sweep.
Kansas State erased a 6-4 advantage by the Sooners in Sunday’s series finale, scoring four runs in the top of the eighth to take an 8-6 lead.
OU pushed across a run in the home half of the inning, but Dylan Phillips, who played three positions for the Wildcats on Sunday, shut down the Sooners in relief in the ninth to preserve an 8-7 K-State win.
Michael Trevin suffered his first loss of the season going 3 2/3 innings in relief. Trevin came in in relief in the seventh inning and yielded six runs on eight hits with six strikeouts.
Oklahoma hammered the visiting Wildcats in games one and two of the series, scoring 36 runs and pounding out 33 hits.
The Sooners got another brilliant pitching performance from left-handed starter Jake Bennett on Friday, who pitched seven shutout innings, allowing just two K-State hitters to reach base and striking out 11. Oklahoma hit four home runs in the game in support of Bennett, who raised his season record to 4-2. Sophomore shortstop Payton Graham pounded a pair of home runs and was one of the OU hitters to collect three hits in the game.
The Oklahoma bats stayed red hot on Saturday, scoring 22 runs on 17 hits in a 22-10 victory. Two Sooners, freshman right fielder John Spikerman and catcher Jimmy Crooks, had four hits apiece, freshman second baseman Jackson Nicklaus was three for five at the plate and two other Sooners had a pair of hits. Four OU players drove in three runs totaling more than half of the Sooners run total for the game.
The Sooners scored seven times in the second inning and added 11 more runs in the third on just four hits but nine walks issued by Kansas State pitchers. Oklahoma sent 17 batters to the plate in the third inning alone, just one shy of batting around twice.
At the end of three innings Oklahoma had built up a 19-1 advantage. Right-hander David Sandlin, the regular OU Saturday starter, went the first 5 1/3 innings, giving up six runs (all earned) on five hits. He struck out six and issued four free passes. Sandlin left the game with OU leading by a comfortable 19-3 margin.
Oklahoma’s series win was its third in the Big 12 this season. The Sooners had previously won series over Baylor and Kansas. They are now 9-6 in the Big 12 and tied with West Virginia in fourth place in the conference standings. With a couple of wins in the K-State series, OU improved to 27-15 overall.
Spikerman and Crooks enjoyed a big weekend at the plate. Spikerman went 7 for 10 with four runs scored and four runs batted in, whole Crooks had 6 hits in 12 plate appearances.
Kansas State ends the weekend with a 4-11 mark in the Big 12 and 22-21 overall.
The Sooners hit the road this coming week with a single game against Dallas Baptist in Dallas on Tuesday followed by a weekend series with TCU, the Big 12’s second best team, in Ft. Worth.