Oklahoma baseball: Sooners are a win away from Big 12 rarified air
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma baseball has beaten top 10-ranked Texas Tech four times this season, and the 6-3 victory over the Red Raiders was the biggest of the four.
The Sooners (35-20) handed Texas Tech a third loss in less than a week with a 6-3 victory over the Red Raiders in the Big 12 Championship Thursday night. Thursday night’s win sends Oklahoma to the semifinals of the postseason conference tournament on Saturday, where they likely could see the Raiders once again
Texas Tech faces Kansas State on Friday night at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, in an elimination game. The winner of that contest will go up against the Sooners at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. With a win on Saturday, Oklahoma would advance to the championship game on Sunday. Whichever team is matched up with the Sooners on Saturday would need to defeat OU twice on Saturday to advance to the championship.
Oklahoma has never won a Big 12 regular-season championship, but the Sooners have won two Big 12 Tournament championships (in 1997 and 2013) in three appearances in the title game.
Texas, TCU and Oklahoma State are still alive on the other side of the bracket. Texas is in the driver’s seat, however, at 2-0. Both TCU, the regular-season conference champion, and Oklahoma State, are one game from elimination.
In Thursday’s win over Texas Tech, OU left-hander Jake Bennett went 7 2/3 strong innings, allowing just one run and two Red Raider hits before turning things over to Sooner closer Michael Trevin, who recorded the final four outs.
Oklahoma freshman second baseman Jackson Nicklaus hit a line-drive bullet over the right-field wall in the second inning driving in three runs, and sophomore shortstop Peyton Graham knocked in a couple of runs in a three-run Sooner seventh, rounding out the OU scoring. All three of the Sooners runs in the seventh were recorded after two outs.
Bennett (7-3) was also the winning pitcher in OU’s 15-8 win over the Red Raiders last Friday.
The Sooners were much more efficient with their offense against Texas Tech than they were in the 6-4 win over West Virginia in the opening round. OU stranded 13 base runners in the West Virginia game, but left only three on base against Texas Tech.
Regular Saturday starter David Sandlin will get the call on the mound on Saturday for the Sooners. Sandlin throws from the right side. He will be making his ninth start of the season. He is 3-1 with an ERA of 5.62 in 41 1/3 innings.