Sooners Complete Sweep of Red Raiders

April 3, 2011

Oklahoma 8, Texas Tech 5
Box Score |

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
TTU	0	0	0	0	0	4	1	0	0	5	7	1
OU	1	1	1	3	0	0	0	2	X	8	16	0

Pitching	IP	H	R	E	BB	SO
W - Smith (4-2)	5.0	4	2	2	3	12
L - Kilcrease (3-1)	3.1	11	6	6	0	2
S - Duke (3)	1.0	0	0	0	0	2

Batting Leaders	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	HR
OU - Buchelle	4	1	3	3	0	1
TTU - Barnes	4	2	2	3	0	2

Game Notes
The Sooners also swept the Red Raiders in Big 12 play in 2003, 2005 and 2006 ... The 18 strikeouts recorded by the Sooner pitching staff was a season high and the most since posting 19 against Arkansas-Little Rock on May 4, 2010 ... The Sooners belted two homers on Sunday, the seventh multi-HR game of the year ... OU leads the Big 12 with 23 dingers ... OU has double digit hits in each of the last four games and in five of the last seven contests ... Tyler Ogle led off the game with a solo homer to left field, his fourth of the year ... The last time a Sooner led off the game with a home run was on March 12, 2009 at Kansas State when Jamie Johnson accomplished the feat ...The Sooners are 8-0 when scoring in the first inning and 14-2 when scoring the game's first run ... Six different Sooners had multi-hit games on Sunday, including the 16th of the season for Garrett Buechele and 12th for Cameron Seitzer, who rank first and second on the team, respectively.

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NORMAN, Okla. -- Burch Smith struck out a career-high 12 batters and six Sooners posted multiple-hit performances as No. 7 Oklahoma surged past Texas Tech 8-5 on Sunday to complete the three-game Big 12 series sweep.

The win, OU's fourth straight and fifth out of the last six games, upped the overall record to 22-6 and 5-3 in Big 12 play. Texas Tech, which entered the weekend winning eight out of the last 10 games, including two Big 12 series wins, dropped to 17-11 overall and 4-5 in conference play.

"They're hard to come by," said OU Head Coach Sunny Golloway on the three-game conference sweep. "We knew they were gonna make a push. They scored eight runs in the ninth inning to be beat Baylor and our athletes knew that. At no time did we think any of the three games were over and at no time today did we think that. They made a run at us and we had to hold them off."

The Sooners led by as many as six runs, at 6-0 after five innings, but Texas Tech finally got to Smith who recorded each of his first seven outs via a strikeout. The Red Raiders posted four runs in the sixth inning, three off Smith, to make things interesting and tacked on another run in the seventh to cut the Oklahoma lead down to one.

However, OU's offense plated two key insurance runs in the eighth inning off a trio of doubles, including RBIs from Caleb Bushyhead and Garrett Buechele.

While Smith improved to 4-2 with 12 strikeouts, the Sooner bullpen tacked on six more for a season high 18 in the game. Tyson Seng tossed 2 1/3 innings with three punch outs and Ryan Duke came on in the ninth to record his third save (31st of career) with two strikeouts.

"Burch Smith was really terrific," added Golloway. "When you think about the first five innings and the command he had, he worked his fastball in and away. He pitched well and he's going to get better."

Texas Tech starter Robbie Kilcrease (3-1) suffered his first loss of 2011 for the Red Raiders, giving up six runs off of 11 hits thru 3 1/3 innings. It marked the second shortest start for Kilcrease this season, who entered Sunday having tossed at least five innings in five of his first six starts.

While Buechele (3-for-4, 3 RBI) and Bushyhead (3-for-4, 2 RBI) helped OU record its fourth straight game with double-digit hits, Tyler Ogle (2-for-4, 2 RBI) also had a solid day at the plate, including a solo home run to lead off the game and a RBI single in the fourth inning. Chris Ellison, Cameron Seitzer and Max White also posted double-digit hit games.

Buechele's RBI single in the fourth was ultimately the difference in the game, giving OU a 6-0 lead. He also blasted his Big 12-leading seventh home run of the year in the third.

"We're swinging the bat much better," added Golloway. "We're offering at balls in the zone. We're not chasing. We're getting in better hitters' counts. It's something we've been emphasizing for two weeks. When we came back from Missouri I thought we had everyone's attention and we were doing things in a positive manner moving forward. I think it showed this weekend."

Next up, the Sooners host the first Bedlam game on campus since 1996 on Tuesday, April 5 at 6:30 p.m. The game against Oklahoma State is a non-conference clash. OU made the trek to Stillwater last season and lost 7-6. Over the weekend, OU returns to conference play with a three-game series at Kansas State held on April 8-10.

"It's a good in-state rival, its good for our fans, good for our ball club," said Buechele on the Bedlam rivalry. "It gets us ready for the weekend."