2 weeks Ago
A couple of days after Oklahoma's thrashing of Oklahoma State, the Sooners met another former Big 12 foe in the opener of a weekend conference series — and the result was pretty much the same. The Sooners broke out of an early dogfight and ran away from Missouri on on Thursday night in Columbia, a dominating 17-4 victory at Mizzou's Taylor Field. Cade Crossland started for the Sooners and did enough for his offense to take over and run away with run rule triumph over Missouri, which is now 0-16 in SEC play and 13-24 overall.
OU improved to 27-10 and 8-8. New leadoff man Trey Gambill went 3-for-5 with six RBIs, including two home runs and a bases-clearing double, and scored three runs to pace a Sooner offense that was simply on fire. Drew Dickerson went 3-for 4 with three RBIs and three runs scored as OU rapped out 15 hits against the Tiger pitching.
Crossland (3-2) pitched five innings and gave up three runs (one earned) on four hits with four strikeoiuts and three walks. Jamie Hitt pitched a scoreless sixth and Michael Catalano finished the final two innings. Both Crossland and Missouri starter Brady Kehlenbrink were perfect in the first inning as they held both offenses hitless in the frame.
The Oklahoma offense had some early success in the second inning with back-to-back hit batters to Sam Christiansen and Jason Walk . Kehlenbrink recovered by retiring the next two Sooners but a seeing-eye single by Dickerson, a Lee's Summit, MO, native, drove in Christiansen from second to give Oklahoma the early 1-0 lead. Dawson Willis followed that up with an RBI double off the bottom of the center field wall that brought in Jason Walk and take a 2-0 lead, but an excellent relay throw by the Tiger defense was able to retire Dickerson at home and end the Sooner threat.
Gambill extended the OU lead in the third inning when he demolished the first pitch he saw from Kehlenbrink over the right field wall and extended the lead to 3-0. The Tiger offense gained a little bit of momentum in the bottom half of the third when an RBI single by Jackson Lovich cut the Sooner lead to 3-1. Crossland found himself in some trouble in the bottom of the fourth after he a single by Pierre Seals and a Cayden Nicoletto hit-by-pitch but runners on first and second with one out.
Jedier Hernandez tied it up when a fly ball just escaped the grasp of right fielder Sam Christiansen and drove in Seals and Nicoletto to make it a 3-3 contest after four innings. Brock Lucas entered for the Tigers in the fifth and was greeted by a leadoff single by Dawson Willis . Lucas retired the next two Sooners but an RBI single by Easton Carmichael drove in Willis and Oklahoma took a 4-3 lead.
Mizzou put their final bit of pressure on Crossland with another hit-by-pitch early in the inning, but he responded with a couple of groundouts to end his day. A single by Walk and a walk to Branch kept the line moving and the Sooners were looking to capitalize. Dayton Tockey's RBI single brought in Walk and increased the Sooner lead to 5-3.
Dickerson's hot night continued when he launched an RBI double into the left-center field gap that drove in two more Sooner base runners and gave OU a 7-3 lead. The cold stretch for Lucas continued when Gambill hit his second home run of the night as Oklahoma broke this contest wide open as they carried their 9-3 lead into the seventh after a clean inning by HItt. After going hitless in his first three at bats, Jaxon Willits finally found a pitch he could get as his RBI double extended the lead to 11-3.
Missouri cut into the Oklahoma lead with a triple from Keegan Knutson and a sacrifice fly by Lovich added a run back that made it an 11-4 contest, Tockey added another Oklahoma run with his second RBI single of the night and brought the lead back to an eight-run deficit. A walk to Willis loaded the bases and and Gambill's hot streak continued as he smashed a bases clearing double that extended the Sooner lead to 16-4. Mason Hamlin came on to pinch hit for Willits and made his way into the box score with his first RBI at Oklahoma to take a 17-4 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning.
With weather expected in the area, the teams gather again on Friday for a doubleheader that starts at noon..
