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Oklahoma baseball: Takeaways from a heartbreaking, last-at-bat loss to Texas Tech

By Chip Rouse

Oklahoma's Braxton Douthit (23) throws a pitch during the Bedlam baseball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and the Oklahoma State University Cowboys at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman, Okla., Thursday, May, 18, 2023.
Oklahoma's Braxton Douthit (23) throws a pitch during the Bedlam baseball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and the Oklahoma State University Cowboys at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman, Okla., Thursday, May, 18, 2023. /
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The Oklahoma baseball team had already won once in the Big 12 Tournament and had a second win in its hip pocket late in the game on Thursday night at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. Then disaster struck.

Texas Tech scored three times in the bottom of the ninth to steal a 10-9 victory over the 7th-seeded Sooners and send OU to an elimination game against — who else? — Oklahoma State on Friday night. Oklahoma surprised their in-state rivals, the No. 2 seed in the postseason conference tournament, with a 9-5 win in the opening round on Wednesday.

The Sooners (31-25) opened the scoring with a run in the first, two in the second and two more in the fourth to take an early 5-0 lead. Clemson struck for four runs on four hits and a couple of Sooners to close within one run of Oklahoma at 5-4.

Oklahoma stretched its lead to 9-5 with a run on the fifth and three more in the sixth. The Red Raiders (39-19) added a run in the home half of the fifth and two more runs in the seventh on a two-run home run by catcher Dylan Maxcey to cut the OU advantage to 9-7.

That’s the way things stood with Texas Tech down to its last three out in the ninth. Weekend starter Braxton Douthit, who had entered the game with one out and one on in the eighth inning, the fourth Sooner pitcher of the night, was on the mound for Oklahoma in the ninth.

Douthit retired the first batter for Texas Tech in the ninth on an infield groundout, then gave up a single to center and walked a batter to put the tying runs on base. Douthit struck out Maxcey looking, and the Red Raiders were down to their final out.

But that final out never came. Back-to-back singles off Douthit drove in two runs to tie the game, and two more singles brought in the winning run. And just like that, it was Texas Tech advancing to the winners’ bracket on Saturday and not Oklahoma.

The Sooners play Oklahoma State at 6:30 p.m. Friday night. The loser of that game will be eliminated, and for Oklahoma it could mean the end of their season if the Sooners lose, depending on what happens with the announcement of the 64-team field for the NCAA Baseball Championship on Sunday. Conversely, should the Sooners make it two straight over the Cowboys, it should be enough to earn them an NCAA postseason berth.

Takeaways from the walk-off Big 12 Tournament loss to Texas Tech

  • OU ace Braden Carmichael started the game on the mound for the Sooners. He went five full innings, allowing five runs (only one earned) on nine hits, struck out one and issued on walk. It was his first loss of the season and the first time in eight starts he did not get the win.
  • Texas Tech, the best hitting team in the Big 12, collected 17 hits in the game to seven for Oklahoma, and the Red Raiders left nine runners on the base paths. The Sooners were actually fortunate that the game was a close as it was.
  • The Sooners are now 1-3 versus Texas Tech this season.
  • Anthony Mackenzie and Jackson Nicklaus each went two for four at the plate and accounted for four of Oklahoma’s seven hits.
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