Oklahoma baseball cruises to 19-7 victory

The statement was quite loud Friday night as Oklahoma baseball opened its final regular season home series behind eight extra-base hits, highlighted by a six-run seventh en route to a 19-7 win over Baylor. 

But the final tally on the scoreboard doesn’t indicate the journey it took for Oklahoma to arrive to its 19th conference win of the season, tying the 2004 club for most conference wins in a season. They trailed 6-2 after the top of the second. Yeah. You read that right. 

The Bears broke through for three runs in the first, aided by a Jackson Nicklaus error, and three more in the second before Sooners starter Braden Davis settled in. The reigning Big 12 Pitcher of the Week final line won’t indicate how good of a night he delivered after being tagged for six runs through two, finishing the night throwing 5.2 innings and striking out five. 

An unusual shaky start for Davis but also a luxury that comes with one of the best offenses in the country. Six Sooners logged multi-hit nights on Friday; John Spikerman and Michael Snyder each had three hits apiece. 

“When you start the game and make an error I think he started pressing. You can tip your hat to them they had some good at-bats in the first two innings. He kind of settled in and really starting making some good pitches,” said Oklahoma head coach Skip Johnson. “I thought he battled and battled.

“He never gave in and when we came back in, our offense picked us up big time. Just started scoring runs and getting quality at-bats. They never gave an at-bat away really from about the fourth or the fifth on. It was really kind of fun.” 

DIGGING OUT OF A HOLE

It didn’t take long for Oklahoma to dig itself out of the early innings hole. Three batters into the bottom of the first, the Sooners had already struck for a pair of runs. John Spikerman led off the first with a ground-rule double. Bryce Madron followed with an RBI triple and Easton Carmichael added an RBI ground out. 

And that was just the beginning of an avalanche of runs. Oklahoma scored two runs or more in six of the eight innings it sent batters to the plate. Six Oklahoma hitters logged multi-hit nights. Eight different players recorded an RBI. 

“One through nine, it’s a tough out regardless of who you’re facing. Old guys. Young guys. It’s a mix of everything. There’s speed and power. There’s fight in every dude on this team,” said first baseman Michael Snyder, following a 3-for-4 night with two RBIs, three runs scored and two walks. 

“I think it makes it really uncomfortable for the opposing pitcher. We’re just not going to give into anything and it’s going to be tough out no matter what.” 

After a John Spikerman fourth inning RBI single tied the game 6-6, Snyder shot an RBI single of his own into left field to give Oklahoma a lead it would never look back on. There was no panic in the Sooners dugout even after facing an early four-run deficit. 

There’s an aura around this Sooner line up who pushed their magic number to three to clinch the school’s first Big 12 regular season title. 

“We give up a three spot, and it’s like okay. It takes the pressure off for the next guy up mentality and it makes it really fun to be in this line up,” said Snyder. 

Oklahoma scored four runs in the fifth. Six runs in the seventh. And three runs in the eighth for good measure. 

Magic number now three

If you’re doing some scoreboard watching this weekend, Friday night brought with it good news. Kansas State opened with a 4-3 victory in Morgantown. Oklahoma now must take care of its own business the rest of the weekend. A sweep of Baylor paired with losses by Oklahoma State and Texas over the next two days would clinch the regular season title outright. 

Oklahoma State beat Texas Tech on Friday night 16-3. Texas opened its three game series against Central Florida with a 6-3 win.