Oklahoma baseball: Monday mound visit
Sitting on a 13-8 record (2-1 in Big 12 action), the Oklahoma baseball team was on the road again over the weekend, this time in the Little Apple to clash bats and arms with conference opponent Kansas State.
The home Wildcats came into the weekend series with the Sooners owning a 14-8 record but were just 1-2 in the Big 12. K-State was 8-1 at home this season entering the OU series and was able to extend it home record to 11-1 following a three-game sweep of the Sooners.
Let’s take a look back at the Oklahoma pitching in the K-State series and how it wasn’t able to stop the bleeding once the Wildcat bats caught fire with several big innings offensively in the three games and how the failure to shut the door in those situations contributed mightily to Kansas State’s first three-game series sweep of the Sooners since 1990.
Game 1 on Friday
Final score: 7-1 Kansas State
The bats stayed relatively quiet during the 7-1 loss to begin the series. But on a Friday night in the Little Apple, quiet bats was only part of the issue.
Kale Davis, the redshirt-junior and right-handed transfer from rival Oklahoma State, took the mound for OU as the Friday starter, and in the space of just four innings, he found himself accountable for five of the seven Kansas State runs. Davis allowed five runs on four hits, struck out three and walked five in a rough outing in his sixth start of the season.
Davis took the loss, which leveled his record to 2-2, but he also had very little offensive support managed just six hits.
Game 2 on Saturday
Final score: 7-6 Kansas State
Oklahoma’s 7-6 loss in the second game in the series fell at the feel of right-handed graduate transfer Braxton Douthit, making his sixth start of the season. Douthit took a 3-0 record into Saturday’s game at K-State, but he found the Wildcats a tougher matchup than in his previous five starts.
The Sooner starter made it through 5 and 2/3 innings. perhaps a bit longer than he should have, allowing all seven K-State runs on five hits, striking out only three and walking the same number. He also was charged with a wild pitch and hit another Wildcat batter.
Douthit was charged with the loss, spoiling his perfect record. Two other OU relievers followed Douthit on the mound (Carson Atwood and Carson Pierce), but by then the damage had been done. Although Saturday saw more offensive output by the Sooners (six runs on 10 hits), the seven earned runs allowed by Douthit cancelled out Oklahoma’s offensive effort.
Game 3 on Sunday
Final score: 8-7 Kansas State
The 8-7 loss by the Sooners on Sunday was a tough one to swallow. Despite falling behind 3-0 in the first two innings, Oklahoma fought back and took a 7-3 lead into the eighth inning, but it was the pitching staff that failed to protect the advantage. James Hitt, a sophomore transfer from Texas Tech, started the series finale for the Sooners.
Hitt, a left-hander, worked the first 5.0 innings. Although the three runs he gave up was a contributor to the OU defeat, Hitt was less of a factor in the loss than the Oklahoma starters the previous two days. The Texas Tech transfer allowed three runs on four hits, struck out two and issued two bases on balls.
The OU starter did not factor in the decision. He was followed on the mound by three relievers, but the real damage came in the bottom of the eighth inning, when Kansas State erupted for four runs off of Will Carsten, who recorded the first out in the inning before giving up three hits and two walks, leading to all four runs.
With the score tied at 7 apiece, Kansas State loaded the bases in the home half of the ninth inning off of two Sooner relievers (Carter Campbell and Carson Pierce). A walk-off single off of Pierce, the last of five OU pitchers in the game, scored the winning run and secured the series sweep by the Wildcats.
Campbell, who was responsible for the runner who scored the winning run, was charged with the loss, sending the Sooners out of Tointon Family Stadium with their collective tales tucked between their legs.
Cameron Black contributed to this article.