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FINAL
Texas - 4
Oklahoma - 9
BOX SCORE
Winning Pitcher: Braden Davis (5-3)
Losing Pitcher: Max Grubbs (4-4)
Different day, same result. It is Friday night, so of course the Horns lost, and of course they did so in mind numbing frustrating ways. After playing what Coach David Pierce called the most complete game of the season on Tuesday against UT-Arlington, the Horns came out and absolutely dropped a turd.
With the loss, the Horns are now 25-18 overall and 11-8 in conference play. The also drops the Horns firmly into 4th place as Oklahoma State swept BYU and West Virginia crushed Baylor in game one.
RECAP
After a scoreless first, the Horns suffered a horror of an inning. Grubbs got the first batter to strike out swinging, but he reached 1B after Galvan could not corral the ball as it took a wicked bounce in the dirt. Jackson Nicklaus then hit a ground ball to Dee Kennedy at 2B who flubbed the transfer. This brought Kendall Pettis to the plate who tried to give the Horns an out by bunting, but ended up hitting a 1-2 fastball through the left side for a single, but then advanced to 2B on the throwing error by Max Belyeu. Next up was Scott Mudler who hit a deep fly ball to CF that the wind was pushing, which caused a ball to hit the glove of Jared Thomas and pop out. The Sooners would then plate their third run of the frame as John Spikerman his a fielders choice to 2B, giving the Sooners the early lead.
In the Bottom 3rd, Easton Carmichael reached on an error by Powell at 3B. After Snyder flied out on the first pitch he saw, Mackenzie reach on a fielding error by Borba at 1B. Kendall Pettis then hit a single up the middle for an RBI single to give the Sooners a 4-0 lead.
The Horns would get a run back in the Top 5th when Jared Thomas hit a double down the RF line and was then driven in by Jalin Flores who hit an RBI single up the middle to make it 4-1.
In the Bottom 6th, Max Grubbs gave up a lead off home run to Jaxon Willits, who take a chest high fastball and launched it to straight away CF, hitting half way up the batters eye to make it 5-1.
In the Top 7th, Dee Kennedy singled through the right side to lead off, followed by a single through the left side to put two men on with no outs. Flores then reached out and hit a sinking liner to LF, but it carried just enough to not fall in and was caught. Peyton Powell then hit an RBI single through the left side to make it 5-2 Sooners, but that was all the Horns could muster.
In the Bottom 7th, the Sooners effectively put the game away as Shaw gave up a lead off home run to Anthony Mackenzie and then left after giving up a walk (HBP) and a single. Easton Tumis came into the game immediately gave up an RBI single to Jaxon Willits to make it 7-2, quickly followed by a fielder's choice from John Spikerman to make it 8-2.
In the Top 8th, Casey Borba led off with a double to the gap in left CF. After Galvan flied out and O'Dowd struck out, Jared Thomas got a fastball right over the heart of the plate and hammered it over the wall to the right of CF to make it a 8-4 ballgame.
In the Bottom 8th, OU got a run right back as Michael Snyder walked with 1 out, then immediately stole 2B without a throw or look from Duplantier, and then stole 3B without a throw or look from Duplantier. After Anthony Mackenzie drew a walk, he broke for 2B and the throw was poor and went into shallow CF, allowing Snyder to score from 3B to make it 9-4. Game. BLOUSES.
BIG MOMENT
In the Bottom of the 5th inning, the Sooners had a man on 2B and 2 outs when a fastball over the heart of the plate was hammered to RF. Will Gasparino made an outstanding leaping catch, timing it just perfectly to rob the Sooners of a 2 run home run, keeping the game at 4-1, with the Horns having just score in the top half of the frame.
Unfortunately, the Horns bullpen would falter later in the game, but at that point, it was a potential turning point that could help propel the Horns forward.
INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE
Jared Thomas went 3-5 on the night with 2 runs scored, 2 RBI, a double, and a home run.
TAKE AWAYS
Yes, the Texas bullpen did not do a good job tonight, but the defense lost them the game without a doubt. The defense put the Horns in an early hole, artificially raised the pitch count of Max Grubbs, and gave all of the early momentum to the Sooners.
I get it. The Horns started the game with three freshman and four sophomores on the field, and baseball is tough. That was just really poor defense, which frankly is inexcusable at this juncture of the season when playing on the road against the top team in the Big 12 conference. Oh...and it is the Horns biggest rival.
Horns better come prepared to win tomorrow or else they will face themselves not just in an 0-2 hole going into Sunday, but they will be rapidly moving to the middle or even lower middle of the Big 12 standings.
NEXT UP
Horns will be back in action against the Sooners tomorrow at 4pm, weather allowing. There is still the possibility of playing a double header on Sunday
