Baseball Cruises in Home Opener

Feb. 26, 2008

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
UAPB	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	4	0
OU	4	0	0	0	4	0	0	0	X	8	10	1

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
W - Duke (1-1)	5	3	1	1	0	5
L - Clark (0-2)	3	3	4	4	3	1

Batting Leaders	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO
OU - Seng	4	1	2	2	0	0
UAPB - Barker	4	1	2	0	0	1

Sooner Baseball Central

2008 OU Baseball Media Guide

NORMAN, Okla. -- The Sooner baseball team (2-1) recorded their second straight win on Tuesday with an 8-2 win over visiting Arkansas Pine Bluff (1-3) in the 2008 home opener at L. Dale Mitchell Park. OU entered Tuesday's game after splitting a two-game series at then-No. 1 UCLA over the weekend.

Freshman Ryan Duke (1-1) bounced back after taking the loss in the season opener on Saturday to earn the win. The Corpus Christi, Texas, native tossed five strong innings of three hit-ball. Duke allowed one run in the first inning and then faced the minimum amount of batters in his last four frames. He finished with five strikeouts and was followed by senior Ryan Mottern (2IP, 0 hits, 2 strikeouts) and freshman Mark Guest (2 IP, 1 hit, four strikeouts) out of the OU bullpen.

"The lines for us from the pitching stand point have been outstanding (so far)," said OU head coach Sunny Golloway. "We have talked about focusing on (pitching) and I couldn't be more happy with the way the pitchers have responded, especially with so many new pitchers."

After the Golden Lions took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning, the Sooners' offense responded with four runs of their own in the bottom half of the frame. Freshman Spencer Selby, junior Trey Sperring and sophomore Bryant Hernandez each drove in runs in the first inning to put OU ahead 4-1.

That was all the Sooners would need to cruise to their 26th straight home-opening victory dating back to 1982. OU is 38-1 in home openers since 1969.

In the fifth inning, OU batted around the lineup and increased its lead with four more runs.

Senior Mike Gosse, who came in to pinch hit in the fifth frame, started things off with an RBI double and was followed by a two-run triple off the bat of freshman Tyson Seng. Senior Aljay Davis finished things off with his single up the middle to bring home Seng and increase the lead to 8-1.

Seng finished the game with a 2-for-4 outing at the plate and two runs driven in. Davis also connected for two hits in the game as OU outhit UAPB, 10-4.

Arkansas Pine Bluff's Justin Clark (0-2), who started the afternoon on the mound, took the loss. The left-hander allowed four runs off three hits in three innings pitched. Reggie Barked led the Golden Lions at the plate with a 2-for-4 day.

The Sooners and Golden Lions will resume the two-game set on Wednesday. First pitch at L. Dale Mitchell Park is set for 3 p.m. and the game can be heard live on the internet, via Oklahoma All-Access on SoonerSports.com.

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