Oklahoma baseball: Sooners score late to take 5-2 win over Gonzaga in series opener
By Chip Rouse
Kendall Pettis broke up a 1-1 tie game with a two-run seventh-inning single and three Sooner pitchers recorded 11 strikeouts in a 5-2 nonconference Oklahoma baseball win over Gonzaga on Friday.
Oklahoma added a pair of insurance runs in the ninth inning on a couple of hits, a hit batsman and a walk and Will Carsten retired the Gonzaga batters in order in the bottom half of the ninth to preserve the victory and earn the save.
Seven of the nine Sooners in the starting lineup collected a hit with Anthony Mackenzie and Pettis each recording two hits.
Right-hander Braxton Douthit started the game on the mound for OU and worked 5.0 innings before giving way to Carter Campbell in the sixth. Douthit allowed one run on eight hits, struck out five and walked three but did not factor in the decision. Campbell picked up the win in relief, his sixth against four losses.
Sooner second-sacker Jackson Nicklaus factored in OU’s first and final runs of the game. He doubled off the wall in right center field with two outs in the fourth and drove in the Sooners final run with an infield groundout in the ninth.
Oklahoma improved to 27-22 overall in hopes of boosting its resume for a return trip to the NCAA Baseball Championship this postseason. The Sooners were runners-up to Ole Miss in last year’s College World Series.
The Sooners and Gonzaga will meet again in Game 2 of the series on Saturday night in Spokane, Washington. The Bulldogs still lead the short-lived overall series with Oklahoma three games to two.