Oklahoma baseball: Sooners out of it early in 9-3 loss to Big 12-leading West Virginia
By Chip Rouse
![Sooner catcher Easton Carmichael throws 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]Ou Practice](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2Fdb9169c22d188bde49e0644ff7913dbb5446eab209cbd798f58c576b1d0b4e34.jpg "Sooner catcher Easton Carmichael throws 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]Ou Practice")
The Oklahoma baseball team had enoughtwo offense and base runners to win the game at West Virginia on Friday, but the Big 12-leading Mountaineers managed to do what the Sooners couldn’t: get the runners home.
The Sooners dropped to 9-10 in the conference, losing for just the second time in the last seven Big 12 contests, with 12-ranked West Virginia prevailing 9-3 in Game 1 of the three-game weekend series.
OU outhit the Mountaineers 12 to 9 and left 10 runners stranded on the base paths, but West Virginia starter B Hampton was able to wiggle out of danger, going the first six innings and limiting the Sooners to one run on seven hits to pick up his fifth win of the season.
Freshman catcher Easton Carmichael led the Sooner offense with three hits in four trips to the plate and driving in two of OU’s three runs with a two-run double to left field in the eighth.
Three other Sooners — Bryce Madron, Dakota Harris and Kendall Pettis, the two, three and four hitters in the lineup — had two hits apiece. Madron hit his 10th home run of the season, a solo shot to left field, in the third inning for Oklahoma’s first run.
West Virginia left-fielder Landon Wallace got the Mountaineers on the board first with a two-run long ball in the first inning. The Mountaineers added three more runs in the third, two in the fifth and one each in the sixth and seventh. By the time came to bat in the eighth, the score was up to 9-1.
Graduate transfer Braxton Douthit got the start for the Sooners. He lasted just 4.0 innings, giving up seven runs on seven hits and recording three strikeouts. But he also walked five and hit a batter, so it was pretty clear he didn’t have his best stuff. He was charged with the loss, his fourth along with four wins this season.
The two teams go at it again at Mongalia County Ballpark in Morgantown on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. CT. Left-hander Braden Carmichael (4-0, 3.59 ERA) is the scheduled starter for the Sooners.