OU Drops Heartbreaker Late to OSU

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma Sooners held a 7-5 lead heading in the bottom of the ninth over No. 17 Oklahoma State, but their third error of the game led to an 8-7 defeat at AT&T Bricktown Ballpark. The Cowboys countered the Sooners' pair of runs in the ninth with three scores in their final at-bat to complete the series sweep.

The Bedlam rivals entered the ninth inning tied at five runs apiece before the Sooners made quick work of Jordy Mercer (2-0) with a one-out single by Aaron Ivey. After his team-leading 18th stolen base of the season, Ivey was plated on Jackson Williams' fourth hit of the game, a single up the middle. The next batter, Aaron Baker, brought home Williams on a double down the right-field line.

But just like Friday night, where OU lost a 7-5 lead in the seventh, the Cowboys battled back. Matt Mangini began the inning with a walk issued by Nich Conaway and after Garrett Richards (1-1) came out of the Sooners' bullpen, Mangini moved to second on a wild pitch. That brought Jordy Mercer to the plate and quickly to first base as Richards walked him before taking a sacrifice bunt by Matt Lopez and making an errant throw to third base for an attempted force out. The throwing error scored two runs and set the stage for Ty Wright, who singled to right field to plate the game-winning run.

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The loss dropped the Sooners' overall record to 28-20 and their Big 12 mark to 8-13. The Cowboys improved to 34-13 overall and 13-8 in Big 12 play.

“This is a let down, but our guys fought hard and I am extremely proud of them,” said OU head coach Sunny Golloway. “We have a tall task ahead of us and we need to take care of business in the last two weekends to make the postseason.”

Sunday's contest had a similar beginning to games one and two, as OU struck first on Aaron Baker's RBI ground out to first base. Baker plated Aaron Reza in the first inning, who reached in the previous at-bat on a dropped pop up by Mangini at third.

After the Cowboys tied the game at one in the bottom of the first, the Sooners regained the lead with three runs in the third. Run-scoring singles by Williams, Mike Gosse and Joe Dunigan gave OU a 4-1 lead, which was short lived. The Cowboys hit their fifth and sixth homers of the series, in the bottom half of the frame, as Corey Brown cleared the fence in right and Rebel Ridling the wall in center.

With the game tied at three apiece, the Sooners' regained the lead on Aljay Davis' first homer as a Sooner. Davis' home run kept OU ahead, 5-4, until the Cowboys tied things in the bottom of the eighth on another error off a sacrifice bunt.

The miscues, six total, were costly in both Friday's and Sunday's one-run losses. Oklahoma entered the weekend with an 8-2 record in games decided by one run. In addition, Sunday's game was the 11th game of the Bedlam Series, since 1997, to be decided by one run and the Sooners are 8-3 in those contests after the weekend.

Despite the loss, Conaway was solid in relief of Joseph Hughes, who lasted 2 1/3 innings and allowed four runs on eight hits and zero walks. Aside from walking four batters, the hard-throwing reliever was efficient across 5 2/3 innings of relief. Conaway struck out six and gave up two runs, both unearned, on three hits and 100-plus pitches.

The Cowboys outhit the Sooners 12-11 and were led by Brown's 2-for-4 performance at the plate, which included two RBIs and one run scored.

For Oklahoma, Williams collected the first four-hit performance of his career. Williams also drove in two runs and scored another himself. The Sooners' catcher finished the Bedlam Series 6-for-13 (.462) with five RBIs. In the last 10 games, the junior has hit safely in nine games with 14 runs driven in.

The Sooners return to action next weekend in Columbia, Missouri. The Tigers are currently in second place in the Big 12 after taking two of three from Texas in Austin this weekend.

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