Oklahoma baseball: Sooners win Big 12 Championship
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma baseball rode an 8-run third inning to the Big 12 Championship over Texas on Sunday.
All of the scoring in game occurred in the first and the third innings, as the No. 3-seeded Sooners claimed their third Big 12 Tournament championship.
Texas scored in the first inning on a solo home run by Melendez to take an early 1-0 advantage. The Sooners weren’t able to generate any offense in the first two innings off of Texas starter Travis Sthele, who struck out three of the first four Oklahoma batters he faced.
But that all changed in the bottom of the third inning, when the Sooners sent 11 batters to the plate and unloaded for eight runs on five hits and three walks, the big blow coming on a three-run home run to right field by catcher Jimmy Crooks.
OU jumped out in front 8-1, and that’s the way things stayed the rest of the way, as starter Cade Horton and relievers Chazz Martinez and Michael Trevin shut the door on the Longhorns, allowing no runs on just three hits after the first inning, giving Oklahoma (37-20) its third Big 12 Tournament championship.
Tanner Tredaway led the Sooners with two hits in four trips to the plate and drove in a couple of runs. Seven of the nine OU starters recorded at least one hit, most of those coming in the explosive third inning.
Redshirt freshman Horton started for the Sooners and wen 5 1/3 strong innings. allowing one run on just two hits, striking out nine and walking two. Martinez came in in relief in the fifth and pitched 2 2/3 innings of hitless baseball while striking out five of seven batters he faced. Trevin came on in the ninth to finish off the win for the Sooners, who now head into the postseason riding the momentum of wins in 10 of their last 13 games.
Oklahoma finishes the regular season on a high note, but unfortunately will have to go on the road in an NCAA regional location to be determined.