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University of Oklahoma Athletics
Oklahoma Falls To Arkansas 8-5 In First Game Of NCAA Regional :: Roberts allows eight runs, five earned, as Sooners fall into loser's bracket.
May 31, 2002 | Baseball
 |
 Jason Fransz went 3-for-4 on Friday against Arkansas, however it wasn't enough as the Hogs topped OU 8-5. |
May 31, 2002
WICHITA, Kan. - The No. 2 seed Oklahoma baseball team fell to third-seeded Arkansas by a score of 8-4 on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Regional at Wichita State's Eck Stadium. The Razorbacks took an early lead and held off a late Oklahoma rally to earn the win and advance in the winner's bracket of the NCAA Regional. Oklahoma now moves into the loser's bracket and will play the winner of Friday night's Wichita State-Oral Roberts game at 11 a.m. on Saturday. Both teams cranked out at least 11 hits and both left 10-or-more men on base in the game.
"We just didn't play good baseball today," said Oklahoma head coach Larry Cochell. "We didn't get hits when we needed them and we weren't as sharp as usual on the mound. Mark (Roberts) wasn't locating his pitches as well as he always does and we didn't help him very much in the field. We need to bounce back from this and be ready to play two good ball games tomorrow."
Mark Roberts (7-4) took the loss for Oklahoma after throwing 90 pitches in 3.2 innings, allowing 10 hits and eight runs, five of which were earned, hitting three batters and striking out two. Michael Bradbury pitched 2.1 innings of relief for the Sooners, Buddy Blair went two frames and Jarod McAuliff one inning. Charlie Isaacson (6-7) earned the win for the Razorbacks, pitching 6.1 innings and surrendering four runs on 11 hits, while striking out three. Scott Roehl earned his fourth save for UA.
Jason Fransz went 3-for-4 in the contest, while Matt Fisher went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and one batted in. Charlie Frasier also notched two hits, while Eddie Cornejo scored twice.
Arkansas loaded the bases off of Roberts in the first inning and took an early 3-0 lead. Andrew Wishy roped a base hit into left field to score two runs, and Ryan Fox's base hit to center brought home one more. The Razorbacks left the bases loaded and all the runs in the inning were unearned.
Oklahoma answered with three runs of its own in the bottom of the second to even the score. The Sooners cranked out four consecutive hits, including base knocks by Matt Bose and Luke Alexander, an RBI-double by Matt Fisher and a run-scoring base hit by Reggie Willits. Eddie Cornejo then hit a sacrifice fly to score Fisher and even the score at three.
After loading the bases in the third, the Hogs scored three runs to take a 6-3 lead over OU. Scott Hode had an RBI single, Scott Bridges was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score a UA run and Michael Conner hit a deep sacrifice fly to center field to score another. Arkansas scored two more in the fourth to go up by a score of 8-3, and in the process, chased Roberts from the game.
Chris Jakubauskas hit an RBI-double in the seventh to bring Oklahoma within 8-4, and in the eighth, Cornejo grounded out to bring home another run. That was all the Sooners could muster, however.
Before today's game, Oklahoma and Arkansas had previously split a home-and-home series this season, with each team winning on its home field.
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