Oklahoma baseball: Kansas jumps on Sooner pitching for 8-2 win in series opener
By Chip Rouse
![Bryce Madron hits in the sixth inning to bring in a tying run as the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) baseball team plays Rider at L. Dale Mitchell Park on Feb. 24, 2023 in Norman, Okla. [Steve Sisney/For The Oklahoman]oubase -- print1](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2Fbdc035afe8332b06c3b06ebc7c478a41bb66d846a356577581be673c0bae74df.jpg "Bryce Madron hits in the sixth inning to bring in a tying run as the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) baseball team plays Rider at L. Dale Mitchell Park on Feb. 24, 2023 in Norman, Okla. [Steve Sisney/For The Oklahoman]oubase -- print1")
Coming off a series sweep of then Big 12-leading Texas, it appeared the Oklahoma baseball team might have turned a corner and built some momentum to help feed the rest of the season.
First time out after that historic weekend a year ago (first Sooner sweep of Texas in Austin in program history), the Sooners couldn’t have come out flatter in the home series opener against Kansas on Friday.
Kansas (21-21, 6-10) scored in six of the nine innings and were never really in any danger of losing in an 8-2 win over the Sooners, who dropped to 7-9 in the Big 12 and 22-20 overall.
KU starter Collin Baumgartner held the Oklahoma bats at bay, going seven full innings and giving up two runs on five hits and striking out nine Sooner hitters. Junior Bryce Madron recorded OU’s first hit in the game with a home run over the right-field wall, his ninth of the season.
The Sooners added one more run on a single by John Spikerman in the bottom half of the seventh, and that was it for Oklahoma for the game. Kansas was already up by 8-2 at that point.
Oklahoma’s six hits in the game were scattered among six different Sooners, with half going for extra bases, but it was far too little against a Kansas offense that made the most of its eight hits and also stranded 13 base runners.
Graduate transfer Braxton Douthit got the start for the Sooners. The right-hander lasted just 4.1 innings and allowed five runs on just three hits, three strikeouts, but five costly walks.
These same two teams will get after it again at 3 p.m. CT on Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday.