With a six-day gauntlet to navigate ahead, Skip Johnson couldn't have asked for a better start from the Oklahoma Sooners' pitchers in the SEC Baseball Tournament.
The 12-seed Sooners avenged a regular-season sweep with a 5-1 win against the 13-seed Kentucky Wildcats in the first round of the SEC Baseball Tournament on Tuesday in Hoover, Alabama. Three OU pitchers powered the Sooners to see another day while giving up zero earned runs and keeping all pitch counts under 75.
3 Sooners combine for gem in win against Kentucky
Freshman lefty Jaden Barfield got the start in not only his conference tournament debut, but also OU's first SEC tournament game since leaving the Big 12 last year. Barfield performed like a veteran while giving up just an unearned run, four hits and two walks while striking out three in four innings.
Kentucky's lone run came in the top of the third inning to give the Wildcats the first lead of the game when Luke Lawrence scored on an error by the third baseman. Lawrence got on base with a double, then advanced to third after Barfield balked with two outs. The Sooners then shut down Kentucky the rest of the game.
The Sooners responded to Kentucky's first blow with three runs in the bottom half of the inning. Centerfielder Jason Walk hit a two-run shot to give OU the lead with one swing before Easton Carmichael added another with a single that scored Trey Gambill.
With OU up 3-1 and Barfield at 65 pitches, Johnson handed the ball to James Hitt at the start of the fifth for the next four innings. Hitt got the win on the mound after shutting out Kentucky through the eighth inning in 59 pitches thanks to a plethora of fly outs and a pair of double plays.
The Sooners gave Hitt some extra support with another run in the sixth when shortstop Jaxon Willits scored on a groundout. Willits also gave OU its final run with a sac fly to score Carmichael in the eighth.
Closer Dylan Crooks then got the ninth inning and struck out all but one batter he faced.
Both Barfield and Hitt threw a season-high in innings. It was only Barfield's second career start and the third time in 17 appearances he pitched more than one inning. The pitching performance has OU ahead of schedule with a possible four games still left to win a conference title. The Sooners still have all three primary weekend starters available, including ace Kyson Witherspoon, who leads the SEC with a 2.48 ERA.
The Sooners will play the 5-seed Georgia Bulldogs in the second round on Wednesday. That game will start 30 minutes after Game 5 between Tennessee and Alabama, which is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. CT.
The Bulldogs got a bye the first round as a top-8 seed, while the top-4 seeds got two byes straight to the quarterfinals. OU dropped two of three to Georgia during the regular season, but won Friday's game of the series 8-6 with Witherspoon on the mound. Witherspoon gave up just one run in seven innings in that outing before Georgia tacked everything on late.
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