Sooners Rally in the Ninth Over Bulls

No. 17 OU 5, USF 4 | Box Score |

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

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
W - Erben (3-0)	2.0	2	0	0	0	3
L - Quackenbush (0-2)	1.1	3	2	2	1	2
SV - none	-	-	-	-	-	-

Batting Leaders	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	HR
OU - Bushyhead	4	0	2	1	0	0
USF - Llerne	4	0	3	3	0	0

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March 4, 2010

NORMAN, Okla. -- The No. 17 Sooners completed their fourth comeback victory of the season on Thursday with a 5-4 win over South Florida in the opening game of the Sooner Classic at L. Dale Mitchell Park.

Caleb Bushyhead collected his second hit of the game in dramatic fashion with a bases-loaded, two-out single in the bottom of the ninth to help the Sooners improve to 8-1 on the year. The go-ahead hit plated Garrett Buechele, who along with Bushyhead and Cameron Seitzer, paced the offense with two each of OU's 11 hits, the seventh outing this year with double-digit hits.

OU trailed 4-3 heading into the decisive frame and the lead was cut to one an inning earlier after Kaleb Herren connected on a pinch-hit solo homer down the left-field line.

"I thought it was big," said OU Head Coach Sunny Golloway on the rally. "Everybody off the bench was big. We were going to have to use everybody again and we might have used everyone. It might not be the last time if they all keep coming through."

Prior to the season, Golloway confidently spoke of the team's depth at the annual media day and Thursday's win was another example to back up those statements. The Sooners used 18 position players against South Florida (1-7) and across nine games this year, OU has used 16 players, besides pitchers, per outing.

Each of the 21 Sooners used on Thursday were forced to rally for the second consecutive game and completed their 90th such victory under Golloway at the helm, who has won 178 games at OU.

Senior captain Jeremy Erben picked up his team-leading third win of the season with another solid relief outing. Erben entered the game in the eighth, down 4-2, and limited South Florida to two hits and zero walks int he final two innings. Erben, who has earned all three of his wins out of the pen, also struck out three batters.

The Sooners jumped on top early as Garrett Buechele gave OU a 1-0 lead with a RBI single in the first inning. Buechele later added a single in the seventh for his eighth multiple-hit game of the season and finished 2-for-3 with a walk and a hit by pitch.

Cody Reine built OU's lead to two runs in the second with a RBI on a fielder's choice as starter Michael Rocha held the Bulls scoreless in the first two frames.

South Florida got on the board in the third and cut the lead to one on a squeeze bunt by Ryan Lockwood, which scored Junior Carlin from third. Carlin reached on a two-out single and advanced to third on a fielding error by Chris Ellison.

The unearned run allowed by Rocha was followed by two runs in the fourth and another in the sixth. In his first start, Rocha kept OU in the game with five strikeouts and eight hits allowed across six frames.

USF starter Randy Fontanez lasted seven innings and suffered the hard-luck loss with just two runs allowed to go along with his seven strikeouts. Reliever, Kevin Quackenbush dropped to 0-2 after surrendering the final two runs.

The Sooners continue action in the Sooner Classic on Friday against Western Illinois (3-1) at 3 p.m. Game one on Friday will get underway at 11 a.m. between South Florida and Stephen F. Austin.

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