Baseball Takes Game One from Kansas

NORMAN, Okla. -- The Sooners combined offense and defense on Friday night to defeat visiting Kansas, 8-0, in game one of a three-game set at L. Dale Mitchell Park.

Stephen Porlier improved to 6-4 with seven strong innings and Aaron Reza (2 RBI) and Jackson Williams (3 RBI) provided plenty of run support as OU claimed its second victory in the first game of a Big 12 series this season (Nebraska).

Reza's RBI-single in the fifth put OU ahead 1-0 and proved to be enough as the Sooners improved to 28-15 overall and 8-8 in Big 12 play. Kansas dropped to 20-26 and 6-13.

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Andy Marks took the loss for Kansas and fell to 3-6 after surrendering three runs off nine hits (two walks) over 5 2/3 innings. Marks and Porlier entered Friday's game ranked No. 2 and No. 1 in strikeouts, respectively, in the Big 12 but combined to record six in the game. Porlier won the battle with four strikeouts en route to picking up his second win in his last three starts.

“This is a big win on a Friday night at home,” said OU head coach Sunny Golloway. “We need to come back tomorrow and really get after it.”

Aaron Ivey collected his third multiple-hit game in the last five outings to lead the Sooners, who tallied 13 hits opposite Kansas' six on the evening. The Sooners are 18-3 this season when connecting for 10 or more hits and during the three-game winning streak, they have recorded double-digit hitting performances in each contest.

In the Sooners' sixth, Zach Hedges and Joseph Hughes connected for back-to-back run-scoring doubles as OU took a 3-0 lead after six innings.

Hedges, a true freshman, made his first start in last weekend's series opener at Kansas State and drove in his first career run on Friday against the Jayhawks.

“He has played very well in four games now,” Golloway said about the Sooners' new third baseman. “The bat is just a plus. We wanted a defensive specialist and he's doing a good job offensively.”

With a three-run lead, Porlier, who gave up four hits and four walks, was relieved in the eighth for Andrew Doyle. Doyle allowed one hit in his 1 1/3 innings of work and Jimmy Rollins closed things out with the final two outs in the ninth. The trio combined to record OU's fourth shutout of the season.

With the game in hand and the Sooners' starter on the bench, the offense continued to add extra insurance. Williams put the game out of reach with a bases-clearing triple in the seventh and Reza added another run-scoring single in the eighth for his 11th multiple-RBI game of the season (tied for the team lead with Joe Dunigan and Aaron Baker).

The Sooners' offense, which struggled at the plate before last weekend's series in Manhattan, has scored 40 runs in the last three games, after plating 33 in the previous nine contests.

The Sooners and Jayhawks will resume the series on Saturday at 3 p.m. with a pair of left-handers taking the mound. OU's Heath Taylor (7-1, 3.52 ERA) will start opposite Kansas' Nick Czyz (2-6, 4.50 ERA). The first 1,000 fans will receive a free OU baseball trading card set.

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