No. 13 Oklahomas Ninth Inning Rally Falls Short In 5-4 Loss To TCU

NORMAN, Okla. - Thirteenth-ranked Oklahoma rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning but was unable to push the tying run across the plate and fell 5-4 to TCU Tuesday night at L. Dale Mitchell Park.

The Sooners (25-14) found themselves in an early four run hole after three innings that they were unable to overcome as four Horned Frog hurlers held OU's offense to six hits. TCU improved to 23-15 on the season with its second win over OU this year.

“We wanted to give Charles (Benoit) the opportunity to start tonight and he wasn't able to give us the kind of outing that we needed,” commented OU head coach Larry Cochell. “We also should have swung the bats better than we did.”

Box Score

Oklahoma's ninth inning rally began with a one out walk to freshman catcher Josh Stinson (1-for-3) which was followed by three consecutive hit batters by TCU's closer Robbie Findlay to force home a run. With the bases still loaded sophomore second baseman Russell Raley (1-for-4) flew out to right field to score another run to bring the Sooners to within a run at 5-4. That's where the score would end as Findlay was able to get junior first baseman Ole Sheldon (1-for-3) to ground out to third base to end the game and pick up his sixth save.

Benoit (0-2) started the contest and experienced some control problems in the first two innings which contributed to three early Horned Frog scores. All three TCU runs came home on a wild pitch, passed ball and balk.

Benoit gave up a leadoff triple in the third inning which scored two batters later on a single by first baseman Chris Neuman making it a 4-0 ballgame in favor of TCU.

The Sooners got on the scoreboard in the fourth inning with one run to cut the Horned Frogs lead to 4-1. Sheldon walked to lead off the frame and moved around to third base on a wild pitch and a single by junior designated hitter Eric Thornton (1-for-3). Sheldon scored later in the inning on a sacrifice fly to center field by freshman leftfielder Ryan Mottern (0-for-3).

After TCU plated another run in the top of the fifth inning, OU scratched for one run in the bottom half of the frame. Back-to-back doubles by sophomore shortstop Ryan Rohlinger (1-for-4) and Raley put runners in scoring position with no outs. Sheldon hit into a fielder's choice to drive in Rohlinger for the second Sooner score.

Five Sooner relievers followed Benoit's two innings of work. Following the four early scores, seniors Charlie House and Casey Brown and juniors Tyler Gooch and Daniel McCutchen stabilized the game to hold TCU to only one run in the last seven frames. Brown worked the bulk of that stretch and gave up the lone run on five hits in 3.2 innings of work while striking out five. Gooch did not surrender a run in two innings to extend his scoreless innings streak to 10 frames.

Sheldon and senior rightfielder Andrew McGuire (0-for-2) also extended a couple of personal streaks in the game. Sheldon's hitting streak improved to 16 games and, by drawing a walk in his second at bat, McGuire has now reached base safely in 33 consecutive games.

Oklahoma heads to Lubbock, Texas, this weekend to take on Big 12 Conference rival Texas Tech for a three game set. Action begins at 7 p.m. on Friday at Dan Law Field.