OU Advances to Big 12 Postseason

May 18, 2008

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
OSU	2	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	4	9	1
OU	1	0	2	1	4	0	2	0	0	10	16	0

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
W - Duke (7-4)	5.0	7	4	4	3	1
L - Gardner (5-3)	2.2	3	3	3	1	1
S - Anderson (1)	4.0	2	0	0	1	3

Batting Leaders	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	HR
OSU - Webb	4	1	2	1	1	1
OU - Hernandez	4	2	3	2	0	0

Game Notes
MIke Gosse's double in the bottom of the third was his 23 of the season, a total that leads the Big 12 and ranks in a tie for seventh all-time at OU in a single season ... Jamie Johnson stole his 13th consecutive base in the first inning ... Johnson leads OU with 19 stolen bases and Sunday's swipe marked the ninth time he stole third base in 2008 ... The Sooners have scored 10 or more runs in 10 of the last 19 games ... OU was 9-for-19 with runners in scoring position on Sunday after going 1-for-11 in the first two games of the series ... The Bedlam Series drew 33,487 fans throughtout the weekend at the two sites.

Sooner Baseball Central

2008 OU Baseball Media Guide

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The OU baseball team (32-23-1 overall, 9-17-1 Big 12) salvaged the Ford Bedlam Series on Sunday in front of 9,189 fans at AT&T Bricktown Ballpark with a 10-4 victory over No. 8 Oklahoma State (40-15, 18-9) and clinched a spot in the 2008 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship.

The Sooners snapped an eight-game regular season skid to the Cowboys and in the process claimed the eighth spot in the standings after the win and the Kansas State Wildcats' 11-10 victory on Sunday in Manhattan. The tournament will begin on Wednesday, May 21 at the AT&T Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City. OU will join Texas A&M, Missouri and Texas in one of the two pools that will determine the participants in the championship game next Sunday. Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Baylor and Kansas State will make up the other pool.

After falling behind 2-1 in the first inning, the Sooners rallied with seven runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings and gave Ryan Duke plenty of run support to improve to 7-4 on the season. After pitching five innings, Duke was relieved by Chase Anderson who allowed just two hits and struck out three over the final four innings to record his first save of the season.

Sophomore Bryant Hernandez helped lead the 16-hit performance by the Sooners with a game-high three hits and drove in two runs along with Aljay Davis and Matt Harughty. The offensive performance dropped OSU's Matt Gardner to 5-3 on the season. The right-handed starter lasted 2 2/3 innings and was the first of five Cowboy hurlers used on the afternoon.

"I am really proud of the way our guys came out," said OU head coach Sunny Golloway. "Going into the Big 12 Tournament, we feel very blessed and fortunate and it will be a new season . Everybody has to win the same amount of games in their pool to get to the Big 12 Championship and all the teams have an opportunity."

For the third straight game, the Cowboys jumped on top early as Donnie Webb homered to lead off the game with Ryan Duke on the mound. OSU struck again later in the inning with one out, as Matt Hague came around to scored on Dean Green's RBI single through the right side.

In the bottom of the first, OU quickly countered and cut the lead in half on Aljay Davis' sacrifice fly to center field. The first out of the frame for the Sooners plated Jamie Johnson, who walked to begin the game and advanced to second on a wild pitch before stealing his team-leading 19th base.

After a scoreless second inning from both teams, OU crossed the plate twice in the bottom of the third to take a 3-1 lead. The third inning was the start of several clutch hits for the Sooners. With two outs, Mike Gosse drove his conference-leading 23rd double of the season to right field to bring home Jamie Johnson, who also doubled in the frame. J.T. Wise followed Gosse with a RBI-single to right field for the second of seven RBIs in the game with two outs on the board. OU finished the game with nine hits in 17 opportunities in that situation.

OU stretched its lead to three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning on Davis' RBI double to left-center field.

After Duke recorded his fourth straight scoreless inning, the Sooners broke the game open In the bottom of the fifth with four runs off six hits. Each of the Sooners hits came with two outs in the frame, starting with back-to-back singles from Casey Johnson and Jarod Freeman. Aaron Baker followed suit with a single of his own to bring home Johnson and then Hernandez connected for his second triple of the season to score two more runs. Harughty completed the four-run frame with an extra-base hit of his own, a double down the right field line to bring around Hernandez.

The Cowboys made things interesting in the top of the sixth inning and cut the lead in half, 8-4, with two more runs scored off Duke before he exited the ball game. However, the OSU offense struggled against Anderson in the final four frames.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Sooners regained the six-run advantage as Harughty drove in his second run of the game and Hernandez scored on a wild pitch by Matt Peck.

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