Elliott Pitches OU to Win in Opener

Oklahoma

Hawai'i

Line Score
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
OU	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	1	1	5	11	0
UH	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	4	2

Pitching
	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
W - Elliott (3-1)	8.0	3	1	1	3	5
L - Brewster (3-2)	6.2	7	3	3	0	0
S - N/A	-	-	-	-	-	-

Individual Leaders
	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	HR
OU - Shaw	4	0	3	1	0	0
OU - Hermelyn	4	0	2	1	0	0
UH - Aliviado	3	1	1	1	1	1

Player of the Game
Chris Shaw // Jr. // C Shaw went 3-for-4 and ripped a pair of doubles, including a RBI-double in the top of the ninth.

HONOLULU – Sophomore right-hander Jake Elliott (Coppell, Texas) was dominant through the first seven innings as he pitched the University of Oklahoma baseball team to a 5-1 win over Hawai'i at Les Murakami Stadium, Thursday night. The Sooners improved to 13-7 on the season, while the Rainbow Warriors dropped to 6-11.

Elliott (3-1) pitched seven shutout frames to start the game before allowing a solo home run in the eighth to UH center fielder Kaeo Aliviado. He lasted a career-high eight innings and struck out five, while scattering three hits and three walks. From the fourth through the start of the eighth, Elliott retired 12 in a row; none of which came by way of a strikeout.

Oklahoma got its offense going in the third with four hits producing three runs. Junior catcher Chris Shaw (Winnipeg, Man.) led the innings off with a double to left and a single up the middle by junior center fielder Craig Aikin (Coppell, Texas) put runners on the corners. Redshirt-senior right fielder Taylor Alspaugh (Broken Arrow, Okla.) broke open a scoreless game with a double ripped past first to drive in both baserunners. Junior first baseman Anthony Hermelyn (McKinney, Texas) followed with a RBI-double to the left field-corner.

Shaw finished the game with three of Oklahoma's 11 hits to record his second three-hit day as a Sooner by going 3-for-4. Hermelyn and redshirt-senior designated hitter Robert Tasin (Klein, Texas) added multi-hit games; both finishing 2-for-4.

In the eighth, OU added an insurance run on a sacrifice-fly by junior left fielder Hunter Haley (Nacogdoches, Texas). Sophomore shortstop Sheldon Neuse (Fort Worth, Texas) lined on one-out single to get the inning going and went first-to-third on a base hit to right-center by Hermelyn.

The Sooners got back the run Hawai'i got on the home run in the eighth with a run in the top of the ninth. Tasin hit a lead-off single and was lifted for freshman Kyle Mendenhall (Carlsbad, Calif.) to pinch-run. Shaw then drilled his second double of the day to bring Mendenhall all the way around to score.

Neuse moved to the mound and Mendenhall went to short for the bottom of the ninth. The first two batters reached on a single and a walk. Aikin then came through with two clutch diving catches in the right-center gap to prevent the Warriors from scoring. For the game, the Oklahoma defense rolled two double plays and made several top-notch plays, including a diving grab by Alspaugh in the third.

Game two of the series features sophomore RHP Alec Hansen (Loveland, Colo.) going for the Sooners with first pitch scheduled for 11:35 pm CT tomorrow.

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Players Mentioned

Craig Aikin

Taylor Alspaugh

Jake Elliott

Hunter Haley

Alec Hansen

Anthony Hermelyn

Mac James

Kyle Mendenhall

Sheldon Neuse

Chris Shaw

Robert Tasin

Sponsors

University of Oklahoma Athletics