Baseball Drops 5-2 Game to UCLA

No. 10 UCLA 5, No. 15 OU 2 | Box Score (PDF)

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

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
W - Gibson (2-1)	3.2	6	3	3	1	2
L - Rasmussen (1-0)	6.0	4	1	1	3	7
SV - Klein (3)	2.0	1	0	0	1	0

Batting Leaders	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	HR
OU - Ellison	2	1	1	1	2	1
UCLA - Rahmatulla	5	1	2	1	0	0

Sooners on All-Tournament Team
3B - Garrett Buechele
OF - Chris Ellison
DH - Ross Hubbard
RHP - Jeremy Erben

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March 14, 2010

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas. -- The No. 15 Sooners dropped a 5-2 decision to No. 10 UCLA on Sunday in the final game of the Whataburger Classic. The loss ended Oklahoma's 10-game winning streak as it fell to 15-2 overall, while UCLA remained perfect at 13-0.

Despite falling behind 1-0- in the third inning, the Bruins rallied with three runs in the fourth and held a one-run lead entering the ninth. UCLA extended its cushion in the final frame with two runs after the inning was extended with OU's lone error of the game. The runs came on Ryan Duke's watch, who returned to his hometown to pitch for the first time since high school, but both runs were unearned.

"That's definitely a team that has a shot to get to Omaha," said OU Head Coach Sunny Golloway on the Bruins. "Now, the challenge for us is, we played them close and we were right there with them, but we have to clean up a couple little things. We are not going to be discouraged, we are determined to get better."

The Sooners sent the game-tying run to the plate in the ninth with two outs, but pinch hitter Drew Harrison grounded out to short to end the game.

In the third inning, Oklahoma struck first on Casey Johnson's RBI single, his seventh run driven in on the year.

After three scoreless innings, the UCLA offense finally broke things open on OU starter Ryan Gibson (2-1). The freshman hurler fought through until the fourth as the Bruins connected for three runs off four hits.

Gibson's opposition, Rob Rasmussen, improved to 1-0 with six innings of four-hit baseball that allowed just one run. Rasmussen also struck seven batters before giving the ball away to the bullpen which featured Dan Klein's third save of the year.

Jeremy Erben, the reigning Big 12 Pitcher of the Week, was spectacular in relief for the Sooners with 4 1/3 of scoreless relief. He entered the game with two outs in the fourth inning and retired the first nine batters he faced. Erben tied his career high with seven strikeouts and allowed just two base runners on Sunday (two hits and a walk). In his last seven outings, Erben has not allowed a run across 16 frames.

As Erben kept OU in the game, the offense kept its home run streak alive at nine games with Chris Ellison's two-out, solo shot that cleared the fence in left. It was Ellison's second of the season and OU's 23rd this season, a mark that leads the Big 12.

OU returns to Norman to begin a five-game home stand starting with a two-game midweek series with Massachusetts on March 16-17. Both games are slated to begin at 7 p.m. The Sooners open Big 12 play on March 19 against Baylor.

With the exception of Sunday's contest, four of the five games next week will be televised on the Sooner Sports Network (Cox Ch. 7 in Oklahoma City and Cox Ch. 3 in Tulsa). All five games will be aired on KREF 1400 AM with Chuck Kelly calling the play-by-play.

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