OU Baseball Continues Road Trip At UTA

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March 19, 2003

NORMAN, Okla. - No. 27 Oklahoma's (11-5) eight-game road stint continues Wednesday at Texas-Arlington (12-12). The contest between the Sooners and the Mavericks begins at 6:30 p.m. at Allan Saxe Stadium in Arlington. The game is the first of two this year between the two teams as UTA will reciprocate the home game later in May and play in a single game at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman.

The game marks the midway point of OU's road trip. The Sooners will continue on to play the No. 8/9 Baylor Bears this weekend in Waco and wrap up their road trip next Tuesday at TCU.

DATE: March 19
FIRST PITCH: 6:30 p.m.
BALLPARK: Allan Saxe Stadium (1,200)
LOCATION: Arlington, Texas
RADIO: The game will be broadcast locally on KREF (1400 AM) with radio veteran James Hale calling the action. The broadcast can also be heard on Oklahoma's official web site www.soonersports.com. Gametracker, which also can be accessed through soonersports.com, will be run throughout the series to provide fans live updates on the game's progress.
TELEVISION: None.
RANKINGS: Oklahoma is ranked 27th in the NCBWA ratings, 30th in the Collegiate Baseball rankings and 31st in the Sports Weekly/ESPN poll. Texas-Arlington is not ranked in any of the polls.
UTA SERIES NOTES: Oklahoma owns a 13-4 all-time series edge over Texas-Arlington ... The two teams have competed in a regular home-and-home series in five of the last six years ... The one year they did not reciprocate home games, in 1999, OU competed in a tournament hosted by UTA ... During OU head coach Larry Cochell's 13 years at the helm, the Sooners are 6-2 against the Mavericks ... UTA's two victories during that span both came last year ... UTA secured 10-5 and 15-5 wins in the home-and-home series ... Luke Alexander cranked out a home run in the first matchup last year ... Eddie Cornejo and Denver Kitch both contributed run-scoring hits in the game as well ... In the second contest last year, Reggie Willits hit his second home run of the season ... Cornejo and Matt Bose both turned in two hit performances to aid the cause.

Last Time Out

No. 29 Oklahoma gave up 10 runs in the first three innings to the nation's top-ranked baseball team Arizona State to dig itself into a hole in an eventual 10-2 loss to the Sun Devils in the series finale Sunday night at Packard Stadium. The Sooner offense was unable to generate enough runs to help the team overcome the large deficit as four ASU hurlers held OU to seven hits. OU starting pitcher David Purcey (0-1) suffered his first defeat of the season as he was resposible for nine of the runs.

An offensive bright spot for the Sooners in the game was junior catcher Spencer Wyman's (1-for-3) fifth home run of the season, and second of the series, which came in the seventh inning. Wyman's five homers marks a new career season best in the category.

The Sooners' only other run came in the third inning when a lead off base hit to sophomore left fielder Brandon Jones (1-for-2) came around to score on senior right fielder Matt Arkison's (0-for-4) sacrifice fly to left field. The run made it a 5-1 ballgame in favor of the Sun Devils at the time.

Arizona State tagged Purcey for four runs in the first inning. Three straight doubles to left field and a base hit to right plated three runs before an out was secured. The first out of the inning, a groundout to shortstop by left fielder Rod Allen (0-for-2), scored the fourth run. Purcey was able to get outs on the next two batters to get out of any further trouble.

After adding a single run in the second frame, ASU opened up a 10-1 lead with five more scores in the third inning.

Junior righthander Mike Swindell and sophomore righty Jarod McAuliff kept the Sun Devils scoreless over the final five frames. In Swindell's five innings pitched, the junior relinquished only two hits and one run. He retired the last six batters he faced over his final two innings of work as he continued to shutdown the Sun Devils as the game went on.

Sooners At The Plate

As a team, Oklahoma is batting .305 with 24 home runs and 111 RBI ... The Sooner offense has recorded double digits in the hits column in seven of the last nine games ... OU exploded for its season high in runs (20) and hits (21) in the team's 20-4 victory over SIU last Wednesday ... Senior second baseman Eddie Cornejo was the team's leading hitter last week ... Cornejo batted .435 (10-for-23) with four runs scored and three RBI over the five game span ... He also batted at a torrid .500 (7-for-14) clip against top-ranked Arizona State over the weekend ... Several Sooners had career best hitting streaks broken over the weekend at ASU ... Senior outfielder Reggie Willits had his halted at 11 games, while fellow senior outfielder Matt Arkison saw his end at eight games ... Sophomore utility player Matt Bose had his career long nine game streak end over the weekend as well ... The longest current hitting streak on the team is held by Cornejo at four straight ... Sophomore outfielder Greg Kish is proving to be a dependable reserve ... Kish leads the team in pinch hitting average at .500 (3-for-6) with three runs scored and a RBI.

Sooners On The Mound

The Sooner pitching staff is currently sporting a 4.09 ERA and has struck out 107 batters while walking 54 ... Sophomore reliever Jarod McAuliff enjoyed three scoreless appearances last week ... McAuliff has now held the opponent scoreless in eight of his nine outings on the season ... He logged five innings of work last week and only allowed four hits while striking out five ... His success last week lowered his ERA by 36 points to his current team-leading 0.64 ERA ... Junior righthander Mike Swindell nearly single-handedly shutdown the explosive Arizona State offensive in five innings of work on Sunday ... After giving up a lone run in his first inning of work, Swindell held the Sun Devils to one hit over the remaining four frames.

About Texas-Arlington

Wednesday's game will mark a special time for Texas-Arlington (12-12). The Mavericks welcome the Sooners for their first home game of the season in newly named Clay Gould Ballpark. The ballpark was recently renamed for the Mavericks former baseball coach who passed away two years ago.

UTA faces OU after opening its Southland Conference slate over the weekend against Northwestern State. The Mavericks dropped the first contest, 9-8, but rebounded with consecutive wins (8-2 and 7-3) to capture a series victory.

As a team, the Mavericks are batting .314 with 24 home runs and 160 RBI. All but two of their starting nine are batting above the .300 barrier. Leading the way for UTA offensively is third baseman Ryan Roberts. Through the first 24 games, Roberts is batting above the .400 mark at .402. He also posesses team-leading totals of six home runs, 25 runs scored and 27 RBI.

Freshman righthander Michael Gardner will be making his first start of the season against the Sooners. In seven relief outings, Gardner has fanned 11 batters in eight innings of work. The UTA staff sports a 5.80 ERA and is holding opponents to a .296 batting average.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

OU Baseball Continues Road Trip At UTA

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