Sooners End Road Trip With Final Swing Through Texas

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March 24, 2003

NORMAN, Okla. - Oklahoma (11-9) looks to end an eight-game road trip, and a six-game losing skid, when the Sooners play at TCU (16-11) on Tuesday in Fort Worth, Texas. First pitch is slated for 6:30 p.m. at the Horned Frogs' new home, Lupton Stadium and Williams-Reilly Field, which just opened at the beginning of the season.
The game concludes the two-game series between the schools this season. OU defeated TCU, 13-6, at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman back in early March.

DATE: March 25
FIRST PITCH: 6:30 p.m.
BALLPARK: Lupton Stadium and Williams-Reilly Field (2,500)
LOCATION: Fort Worth, Texas
RADIO: The game will be broadcast locally on KREF (1400 AM) with Jim Byers 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 30th in the the Sports Weekly/ESPN poll. TCU is not ranked. TCU SERIES NOTES: Oklahoma leads the all-time series, 48-20 ... The Sooners own a 20-7 advantage over the Horned Frogs during OU head coach Larry Cochell's tenure ... ... The Sooners are 5-4 against the Horned Frogs in Fort Worth under Cochell ... The two teams have played a two game home and home series every year since 1997 ... OU has won 12 of the last 13 contests ... The last time Oklahoma lost at home to TCU was in 1996 when it dropped two straight ... Last season, the two teams only faced each other once due to one game being cancelled because of weather ... The Sooners won the lone game 7-3 in Norman ... David Purcey notched the win in his first career start in the game ... Reggie Willits, Denver Kitch, Ryan Richardson and Luke Alexander each hit home runs as part of the Sooners' 13 hit effort ... After falling behind 5-0 to the Horned Frogs in the first game between the two schools this season, the Sooners exploded for 13 runs to win the game ... The Sooners scored eight runs in the sixth inning to level most of the damage ... Senior second baseman Eddie Cornejo and junior third baseman Jay Yaconetti both paced the offensive effort with three hits a piece ... Cornejo also recorded a career high four RBI in the game ... Junior righty Mike Swindell made his first start in the game and received a no-decision ... Senior righthander Austin Mix picked up his first win of the season in relief.

Last Time Out

The eighth-ranked Baylor baseball team secured a series sweep with a 10-3 victory over No. 27 Oklahoma in the series finale Sunday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark. Three Baylor home runs and nine early runs off Oklahoma starter Mike Swindell (2-1) led to the Sooners' demise. The OU offense only generated four hits in the game and scored three runs in the sixth inning to avoid a shut out.

OU mounted a small comback in the top of the sixth inning and plated three runs to cut Baylor's lead to 10-3. Senior center fielder Reggie Willits (0-for-3) started off the frame with a walk and a stolen base to end up at second base. Willits hustled around the bases to score on an error by the Bears' first baseman which placed senior right fielder Matt Arkison (1-for-4) at first base. Following the first out of the inning and a single by junior third baseman Jay Yaconetti (1-for-4), Arkison scored on junior left fielder Andrew McGuire's (1-for-3) single to left. Sophomore first baseman Matt Bose (0-for-2) accounted for the Sooners' final run of the inning as his sacrifice fly to left field scored Yaconetti.

Swindell backed himself into an early 5-0 hole at the end of the first inning after allowing five runs on five hits. The Sooners aided the Bears' effort with an error by freshman second baseman Russell Raley (1-for-1) that led to two unearned runs in the frame.

After battling through two more hits and a walk during the second and third frames, Swindell's day ended after giving up back-to-back home runs in the fourth inning. The junior righthander served up a three-run homer to first baseman Ross Bennett and then gave up the second home run to left fielder Micheal Griffin to give Baylor a 9-0 advantage.

Sophomore lefty David Purcey relieved Swindell following the two homers and got the Sooners out of the inning without any further damage. Purcey also fell victim to the Bears' home run barrage in the next inning when center fielder Chris Durbin hit a solo shot to left field to extend Baylor's lead to 10-0.

Sooners At The Plate

As a team, Oklahoma is batting .284 with 24 home runs and 126 RBI ... The Sooners rank ninth in the Big 12 in batting average, but are fourth in home runs ... The team drew a season high 15 walks last Wednesday at Texas-Arlington ... The total fell four shy of the school record of 19 which was established against Colorado back in 1950 ... Senior center fielder Reggie Willits ranks sixth in the Big 12 Conference in batting, second in stolen bases and on base percentage and is tied for ninth in walks ... Senior shortstop Eddie Cornejo ranks tied for ninth in the league in hitting and also ranks ninth in the on base percentage category ... Junior third baseman Jay Yaconetti ranks third among the league leaders in home runs and 10th in slugging percentage ... Senior right fielder Matt Arkison peeked in among the conference leaders this week in a tie for ninth place in doubles ... Junior catcher Spencer Wyman also peeks in a tie for sixth place in the league for home runs ... Willits was the team's leading hitter for the week ... He collected four hits in 10 at bats and scored three runs while driving in two more ... After totaling only eight walks on the season entering last week, Cornejo drew six walks over the last four games with at least one in each contest ... Cornejo's 14 walks is now the second highest total on the team ... Willits and Cornejo have both reached base safely in 19 of the 20 games played this season.

Sooners On The Mound

The Sooner pitching staff is currently sporting a 4.66 ERA and has struck out 127 batters while walking 64 ... Junior lefthander Buddy Blair ranks 17th in the Big 12 in ERA ... Sophomore reliever Jarod McAuliff has made the fourth most appearances in the conference ... Junior righthander Mark Roberts appears among the league leaders in innings pitched in 10th place ... Junior righty Mike Swindell continues to sport one of the lowest opponent batting averages in the Big 12 as he ranks 10th in the conference ... Junior righthander Casey Brown made his first appearance of the season after recovering from shoulder surgery back in the fall ... Brown worked the seventh inning and struck out the first batter he faced and proceeded to get the next two Bears out on consecutive groundouts ... After an erratic stint as a starter to begin the season, sophomore lefty David Purcey has performed better in relief since exiting the rotation ... Purcey only gave up two runs in five innings of work last week ... He also fanned six batters after striking out only four in the previous 8.1 innings (spanning four appearances) ... Roberts suffered his third straight no-decision in his most recent start against Baylor on Friday ... Roberts has left with the lead in two of those contests and with the game tied in the other ... The Sooners are 1-2 in those games.

About TCU

TCU (16-11) squares off against Oklahoma for the second time this season. The Horned Frogs enter the game this time sporting a team batting average of .300 and a staff ERA of 4.88. They have won seven of their last 11 games since losing to the Sooners back in early March.

Right fielder Jake Duncan, who hit three home runs against OU in the first game this year, continues to lead the team offensively. Duncan tops all TCU sluggers with a .380 batting average. His five home runs falls second to teammate Chris Neuman who has sent nine pitches over the fences already this season.

Kyle Shoemaker is expected to take the mound against Oklahoma on Tuesday. Shoemaker, who owns a 2-2 record and 6.61 ERA, started the first game against the Sooners and received a no-decision.

Last Time Versus TCU

The 29th-ranked Oklahoma baseball team used an eight run fifth inning to erase a four run deficit as the Sooners came from behind to crush TCU, 13-6, at L. Dale Mitchell Park. The Sooners had six players register multi-hit efforts as the team produced a season high 13 runs and 17 hits. Leading the way for the offense was senior second baseman Eddie Cornejo and junior third baseman Jay Yaconetti who each recorded career bests with three hits a piece. Senior Austin Mix (1-0) was credited with the win in relief as OU improved to 6-2 on the year. TCU fell to 9-7 on the season with its third straight loss.

After beginning the Sooners' rally in the fifth inning with a double, junior left fielder Andrew McGuire capped off the eight-run frame with a two run home run, his second long ball on the season. Earlier in the inning, Cornejo hit a three-run double to bring the Sooners to within a run at 5-4. He then scored the tying run on sophomore catcher Matt Bose's (1-for-4) sacrifice fly to center field three at bats later. Junior shortstop Denver Kitch delivered the game-winning hit with a two-run double to score Yaconetti and junior designated hitter Spencer Wyman (1-for-3) just prior to McGuire's two-run blow.

OU exploded for four more runs in the seventh as the Sooners took advantage of an error early in the inning to plate an unearned run and Yaconetti produced a two-out double to open up a 12-6 lead. Yaconetti scored the final run for the Sooners as he hustled around from second base on a two-base error by the Horned Frogs shortstop.

Not As Offensive Defense

Although Oklahoma's defense has not produced consistent errorless performances, it has lowered its number of errors over the last 10 games. During that span, the Sooners have only committed 14 errors as opposed to the 23 errors they recorded over the first 10 games of the season. This improvement has also been reflected in their errors per game average lowering from 2.3 during the first 10 games to 1.4 over the last 10 contests.

With the improvement, the Sooners have moved out of the cellar in the Big 12 Conference rankings and now stand in eighth place in fielding percentage.

Only Getting Better With The Competition

Senior infielder Eddie Cornejo is proving he isn't afraid of a little competition. Cornejo is batting .481 (13-for-27) in seven games against top-25 competition this season after pacing the Sooners with a .400 average versus No. 8 Baylor over the weekend and a .500 average against No. 1 Arizona State two weeks ago. The senior shortstop also went 2-for-3 at the plate against then-No. 22 Ohio State at the beginning of March.

Yaconetti Receiving National Recognition

Junior third baseman Jay Yaconetti was highlighted on ESPN.com as a "Player To Watch" last week on their College Sports home page. Yaconetti received the recognition for his performance against TCU and Michigan two weeks ago for which he earned Big 12 Conference Player of the Week honors. For the week, Yaconetti hit at a .562 (9-for-16) clip with nine runs scored and nine RBI, including two home runs.

Oklahoma-Nebraska Game To Be Televised By Fox Sports Net

The Oklahoma-Nebraska baseball game on Saturday will be televised by Fox Sports Net. Bill Land and Greg Lucas will anchor the telecast with expert analysis from former major leaguer Jack Lazorko. Game time for the Saturday game is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. at L. Dale Mitchell Park.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Sooners End Road Trip With Final Swing Through Texas

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