Sooners Drop Heartbreaker to Aggies

April 11, 2008

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	R	H
OU	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	3	0	7	13	0
A&M	0	6	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	8	9	2

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
W - Starling (5-0)	2.0	5	2	2	0	2
L - Guest (0-2)	2.0	2	1	1	0	6
S - none	-	-	-	-	-	-

Batting Leaders	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	HR
A&M - Anders	4	2	3	2	0	1
OU - J. Johnson	5	0	2	1	0	0

Notes:
Jamie Johnson extended his season-high hitting streak to eight games with his eight multi-hit performance in that span ... Johnson has 17 hits in the last eight games and five RBIs ... The Aggies won the series opener with the Sooners for the fifth straight time ... Despite dropping the opener, OU has won the last four series meetings ... The Sooners are 3-3 in one-run games ... Friday was the 16th meeting in the series decided by one run ... OU is 9-7 in those games against Texas A&M ... Oklahoma and Texas A&M have split the 34 regular season meetings since Big 12 play began in 1997.

Sooner Baseball Central

2008 OU Baseball Media Guide

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The Oklahoma Sooners (22-11-1, 3-6-1) dropped a heartbreaker in the series opener at No. 11 Texas A&M (28-6, 10-3) on Friday. The Aggies plated the game-winning run in the ninth inning to claim an 8-7 victory in front of an announced attendance of 4,952 at Olsen Field.

The Sooners overcame a 6-2 deficit early and tied the game at seven in the eighth inning. However, the bid for the 11th comeback victory of the season was crushed when Texas A&M's Jose Duran singled in the game-winner with the bases loaded and zero outs in the final frame. Aggie closer Travis Starling (5-0) earned the win with the final two innings pitched.

Despite recording six strikeouts in two innings of relief, Mark Guest (0-2) took the loss after putting the go-ahead run on base to lead off the ninth. The loss was the second suffered by OU in the final inning in Big 12 play this year. The Sooners also dropped a ninth-inning decision to then-No. 22 Nebraska in Lincoln in the series opener.

"You have to give Texas A&M a lot of credit," said OU head coach Sunny Golloway. "They limited the damage in the first when we had the bases loaded and took advantage of the same situation in the bottom of the second scoring by six runs. We have to do a better job of avoiding those big innings and taking advantage of our own offensive situations."

Oklahoma got off to a good start on Texas A&M starter Brooks Raley after the first three batters loaded the bases in the first inning. Mike Gosse and Matt Harughty ripped back-to-back singles to right field to lead off the game and J.T. Wise reached on an error before Spencer Selby grounded into a double play to score the first run. With two outs, the next batter, Jamie Johnson (2-for-5), plated another run on a single up the middle. Johnson extended his hitting streak to eight games on Friday, all multi-hit games.

OU starter Jeremy Erben got off to a good start in the first inning and recorded a 1-2-3 frame but allowed the Aggies back in the ball game with six runs surrendered in the bottom of the second inning. Texas A&M batted around the lineup and received a RBI triple by Luke Anders, a two-run single by Kevin Gonzalez and a bases clearing triple by Dane Carter to take a 6-2 lead.

In the top of the sixth, the Sooners cut the lead in half with a RBI single off the bat of Aaron Baker but Texas A&M got the run right back. With one out in the bottom half of the inning, Erben faced his last batter as Luke Anders homered deep to right. Besides the second inning, Erben was effective as he bounced back to blank Texas A&M in the third, fourth and fifth frames. Erben gave up seven runs on five hits and three walks in 5 1/3 innings. Erben also struck out three Aggies on the evening but left the game in line for his second straight defeat.

The Sooners plated another run in the top of the seventh inning on Tyson Seng's leadoff home run. It was Seng's third dinger of the year and OU's 30th overall. Just past the midway point of the season, OU is six homers shy of last year's total set in 58 games. Seng's homer was the start of what could have been in the OU seventh. The Sooners stranded two runners to end the frame and left eight on throughout the game.

The Aggies threatened in the bottom of the seventh as reliever Chase Anderson walked the first two batters of the inning. Guest quickly relieved Anderson but loaded the bases before striking out the side.

The solid relief performance gave the OU offense a boost as it tied things up at seven runs apiece in the top of the eighth. Jarod Freeman started the rally and deposited an 0-1 pitch over the left-field fence with Casey Johnson on base. The homer was Freeman's second of the season and two batters later, Mike Gosse doubled in Tyson Seng to equal the Aggies' seven runs.

Guest came back in the bottom of the eighth and struck out the side but after giving up a single to begin the ninth, Guest was pulled for Michael Rocha. Making his second relief appearance of the year, Rocha walked the first batter he faced to bring up Carter, who's single up the middle was nearly turned into a force out by a diving Harughty at short. That brought up Jose Duran and the shortstop delivered the game-winning hit.

The Sooners and Aggies will resume the series on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. and the game will be broadcast live on KOKC 1520 AM.