Oklahoma tuned up for this weekend's SEC season opener at South Carolina with a three-game series sweep of Sam Houston.
The No. 13 Sooners improved to 14-1 after winning 6-5 on Friday and taking both ends of a doubleheader on Sunday, 7-3 and 9-7, at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman.
OU just suffered its first loss of the season to Dallas Baptist on Tuesday after starting 11-0.
Kyson Witherspoon started the game on Friday for Oklahoma and pitched five innings, allowing one run on one hit and a career-high tying 12 strikeouts. Four different Sooners collected two hits apiece, and junior catcher Easton Carmichael hit a solo home run, his fourth of the season, to pace the OU offense.
The Sooners were in control of Friday's game from the fifth inning on, scoring one in the fourth, two in the fifth, two more in the sixth and a single run in the seventh. Sam Houston rallied with three runs in the top of the ninth, but Dylan Crooks came in to record the final out and pick up his fourth save.
The scheduled game on Saturday was changed to a doubleheader on Sunday because of the expectation of bad weather in the Norman area.
Oklahoma won Game 1 of the Sunday doubleheader 7-3 with Trey Gambill and Dawson Willis each collecting two hits, and Willis knocking in a pair of runs with a homer and a double. Cameron Johnson started the game and earned the win, going five innings, allowing two runs on four hits. striking out eight and walking two.
The Sooners fell behind 5-1 in Game 2 before exploding for seven runs in the bottom of the fifth off of Sam Houston starter Connor Zaruba. Oklahoma sent 11 batters to the plate in the inning and came away with five singles, a double and two walks resulting in seven runs.
Carmichael hit a solo home run to left field in the bottom of the sixth to complete the scoring for the Sooners in a 9-7 win. It was his second of the weekend and fifth overall.
Oklahoma will host Louisiana Tech (9-7) at L. Dale Mitchell Park on Wednesday and open its SEC conference schedule at South Carolina (14-3) over the weekend.
Three notables from Sooner baseball over the weekend:
- With the win on Friday, OU starter Kyson Witherspoon is 4-0 in four starts with an ERA of 1.17, seventh-best in the SEC. The right-handers career-high tying 12 strikeouts gives him 40 for the season in 23 innings.
- Oklahoma was 11-for-27 with runners in scoring position over the weekend, a .407 batting average. The Sooners collected 30 hits total in the series, including four home runs and eight two-base hits.
- In the bottom of the eighth in the first game of the Sunday doubleheader, junior third baseman Dawson Willis hit a two-out solo home run, his first in a Sooner uniform.