No. 9 Baseball Edges No. 16 TCU, 7-5

April 14, 2009

No. 9 OU 7, No. 16 TCU 5 | Box Score |

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

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
W - Richards (5-1)	5.0	5	3	3	3	8
L - Gerrish (4-1)	1.1	5	4	4	1	3
S - Duke (8)	1.0	0	0	0	0	1

Batting Leaders	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	HR
OU - Ellison	4	1	3	1	0	0
TCU - Ellington	5	0	3	2	0	0

GAME NOTES
The Sooners completed the season sweep of TCU on Tuesday after dropping the then-No. 14 Horned Frogs earlier in the year, 8-7, in Fort Worth ... OU is 7-2 under head coach Sunny Golloway against the Horned Frogs ... The Sooners' pitching staff struck out 15 batters, the second most this season behind the 16 last week at Wichita State ... Tuesday's game marked the fifth for OU against a current ranked team ... The Sooners are 4-1 in those contests ... OU has won 10 straight midweek games and stand at 11-1 overall in those contests.

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NORMAN, Okla. -- The No. 9 Sooners held on to a 7-5 win over No. 16 TCU on Tuesday in front of 1,487 fans at L. Dale Mitchell Park.

Despite falling behind 2-0 early, OU (29-8)built a 4-2 lead heading into the third inning and never looked back behind Garrett Richards' career-high eight strikeouts.

“It's definitely a game you want to win so feel like you have some momentum going into it (the weekend),” said OU Head Coach Sunny Golloway. “TCU has a great RPI right now and they have a very good team so I consider that a quality win.”

Richards allowed a two-run homer to Matt Curry in the second frame but competed throughout his five innings to improve to 5-1 on the season. The Edmond, Okla., native allowed three runs off five hits and three walks to record his fourth consecutive victory in as many appearances. During those four outings, three of which have come in OU's last three midweek games, Richards has hung up 20 strikeouts.

“I thought even though he wasn't as sharp as he was up at Wichita State last week, he did very well,” added Golloway. “His experience is starting to show through.”

Chris Ellison tied a career high with three hits and knocked in the go-ahead run in the second frame to pace the OU offense. Cameron Seitzer and Matt Harughty also turned in multiple-hit performances with two hits apiece.

After TCU (23-11) took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second, Oklahoma countered in the bottom half of the second with a four-run inning.

The Sooners strung together four straight base hits that each drove in a run, starting with Seitzer's RBI single to the gap in left center. Harughty's double brought home Seitzer and tied the game at two apiece. Ellison dragged a bunt down the first-base line for a RBI single and Jaime Johnson followed with a RBI single through the right side to give OU a 4-2 lead.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Sooners extended their lead to 7-2 behind Bryant Hernandez's sacrifice fly and Kaleb Herren's bases-loaded walk.

OU handed Paul Gerrish (4-1) his first loss of 2009. The hurler started the game by striking out the side in the first inning. But was unable to get out of the second before giving up five hits and four runs.

TCU chipped away at the Oklahoma lead with single runs in fifth, seventh and eighth innings off Richards and two of the Sooners' five relievers, Michael Rocha and Chase Anderson.

Ryan Duke entered the ninth with a 7-5 lead and sat down the three batters he faced in order to record his Big 12 leading eighth save of the year.

The Sooners hit the road to battle No. 9 Texas in Austin for a three-game set. The Longhorns are 1 1/2 games behind the first-place Sooners in the Big 12 standings.

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