Oklahoma baseball: Sooners will play for Big 12 Championship
By Chip Rouse
The No. 3-seeded Oklahoma baseball team won their third straight game in the Big 12 Championship on Saturday and will play for the tournament championship on Sunday.
Oklahoma defeated No. 7 seed Kansas State 4-3 Saturday afternoon at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. The win eliminated the Wildcats from the double-elimination conference tournament.
The Sooners (36-20) have won nine of their last 13 games and will play Red River rival No. 17 Texas for the Big 12 Championship on Sunday, The Sooners, the highest-seeded team remaining in the Big 12 postseason tournament, lost two of three to the Longhorns in the regular season.
Oklahoma scored in the first inning on an RBI single by Tanner Tredaway, scoring Peyton Graham. Kansas State, which eliminated No. 2 Texas Tech on Friday evening, countered the OU run with one of its own in the top of the second when a single by Justin Mitchell scored Cole Johnson from first on a throwing error by right-fielder John Spikerman.
K-State took a 2-1 lead in the fifth on a run-scoring single by Cash Rugely, one of three Wildcats with a couple of hits in the game. The Sooners regained the lead for good on a two-run double to center field by catcher Jimmy Crooks, driving in Tredaway and Blake Robertson.
Graham added a home run to left field in the seventh to provide what turned out to be the game-winner, as Kansas State pushed across its third run of the game in the top of the eighth.
Graham, Tredaway and Crooks each had two hits in the game, accounting for six of the Sooners’ 10 hits.
OU closer Michael Trevin came on to record the final two outs in the eighth and pitched a perfect three-up, three-down ninth to secure the Oklahoma win and advance the Sooners to their third Big 12 Championship game. OU won the only two conference championship games it has appeared (in 1997 and 2013).
Right-hander David Sandlin started the game for the Sooners. He pitched 7.0 innings, allowing two runs (only one earned) on five hits, striking out 10 K-State hitters while yielding one base on balls.