Neal Strikes Out 11 in 10-2 Victory

No. 12 OU 10, Nebraska 2 | Box Score (PDF)

Neal was impressive on Friday with 11 Ks.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
OU	0	0	0	1	1	3	5	0	0	10	11	0
NU	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	6	2

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
W - Neal (3-0)	7.0	4	1	1	0	11
L - Hauptman (1-3)	6.0	7	6	6	1	4
SV - none	-	-	-	-	-	-

Batting Leaders	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	HR
OU - White	4	1	3	3	0	1
NU - Belfonte	4	1	2	1	0	0

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March 26, 2010

LINCOLN, Neb. -- The No. 12 Sooners cruised to a 10-2 victory in the series opener at Nebraska on Friday behind a strong pitching performance by junior Zach Neal.

While Neal received plenty of run support off three Sooner home runs, he struck out a career-high 11 batters across seven innings. Neal allowed two hits and a run in the first, but settled down and didn't look back after retiring the side in order in the third, fourth, sixth and seventh innings. Nebraska finished with just four hits and Neal did not walk a batter.

"Zach did a tremendous job," said OU Head Coach Sunny Golloway. "We were down 1-0, with nobody out and a runner on second and he doesn't give up another run. I thought he was able to feed off his teammates even though we didn't score a run until the fourth. He fed off that first-inning jam throughout the whole game. That was big for him."

The Sooners trailed 1-0 after three innings but rallied for the third straight game and 10th time this season as OU pounded Nebraska's Casey Haumpton (1-3) for six runs off seven hits. Eight of the Sooner runs came in the sixth and seventh frames.

The win snapped a five-game losing streak for the Sooners in Big 12 road openers and upped the 2010 record to 19-2 overall and 2-0 in Big 12 play. OU's four-game winning streak dropped Nebraska to 11-10 (1-3). The Sooners have won 14 of the last 15 games.

"I thought the maturity of this club really showed tonight," added Golloway. "On the mound, at the plate and in the field. This was a big win for us on the road. We are playing good right now, but we are going to face adversity eventually and the maturity is going to help this club throughout the year."

The Cornhuskers jumped out to an early lead with back-to-back base hits to begin the first inning and Kale Kiser provided the latter of the two with a double down the line to plate leadoff hitter D.J. Belfonte.

Caleb Bushyhead (2-for-5, three runs) helped OU counter in the fourth and was one of three Sooners to finish with a game-high three RBIs and his night began with a solo home run in the fourth that tied the game up at one. It marked Bushyhead's third homer of the season and it extended his hitting streak to eight games. In addition, Bushyhead's solo shot gave OU a home run in each of the last 14 games.

Max White (3-for-4) duplicated Bushyhead's feat in the next frame with a solo shot to left center to lead off the fifth. It was also White' third home run of the year and it gave the Sooners their eighth game with one or more roundtrippers.

In the sixth, Bushyhead struck again, this time on a single up the middle that brought home Chris Ellison from second base. Ellison led off the sixth with a double to the gap in left-center to extend his hitting streak to eight games, a career best. The hit paved the way for a three-run sixth that also featured a two-run double by White, who made his first career start in right field on Friday night and drove in a career three runs.

The OU offense eclipsed the double-digit hit and run mark after exploding for five runs in the seventh highlighted by Garrett Buechele's three-run blast over the left-field fence. Buechele's sixth homer of the year was accompanied by Bushyhead's third RBI of the game, a ball that was hit hard to the second baseman and ruled an error. The error came with the bases loaded and zero outs and plated two runs.

In addition to Bushyhead and Ellison extending their hitting streaks, Casey Johnson upped his season-best streak to nine games and Cameron Seizter's streak stands at 10, the longest by a Sooner in 2010, after a 2-for-5 outing.

OU and Nebraska return to action on Saturday at 2 p.m. The game can be heard on the Sooner Sports Network, KREF 1400 AM and free online at SoonerSports.com.

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