Neuse and Evans Come Up Clutch for OU

Saturday, March 14

Honolulu, O'ahu

11:35 PM

University of Oklahoma

Hawaii

March 14, 2015 | Baseball

By: Athletics Communications

Oklahoma

Hawai'i

Box Score

Notes

Line Score
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	R	H	E
OU	0	1	0	0	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	8	14	1
UH	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	5	7	1

Pitching
	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
W - Evans (3-0)	5.0	3	1	1	1	6
L - Culp (0-1)	3.0	3	3	3	2	1
S - N/A	-	-	-	-	-	-

Individual Leaders
	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	HR
OU - Carpenter	5	2	3	1	1	0
OU - Hermelyn	4	1	3	1	2	0
UH - Weeks	4	2	2	2	1	0

Player of the Game
Jacob Evans // Jr. // LHP Evans entered with two on and nobody out in the eigth. He stayed on to through the final out to get the win in the 12th.

HONOLULU – Sophomore shortstop Sheldon Neuse (Fort Worth, Texas) delivered the game-winning run in the top of the 12^th as the University of Oklahoma baseball team went on for an 8-5 win at Hawai'i at Les Murakami Stadium on Saturday night. The first extra-inning game of the season pushed the Sooners to 14-8 on the year, while the Rainbow Warriors dropped to 7-12.

A pair of walks by third baseman Joshua Ake (Readington, N.J.) and redshirt-senior right fielder Taylor Alspaugh (Broken Arrow, Okla.) put two runners on with one out to start the 12^th. After hitting four hard, fly-ball outs in his previous four at-bats, Neuse knocked a base hit through the right side that plate Ake. An errant throw delivered Alspaugh to the plate to give OU a two-run lead. Junior first baseman Anthony Hermelyn (McKinney, Texas) added to the Sooners' lead with a RBI-double to right-center.

Working into his fifth inning of relief, junior lefty Jacob Evans (Broken Arrow, Okla.) worked around a walk and a single to start the bottom half and earned the win to move to 3-0 on the season. He pitched five innings and allowed one run on three hits and one walk, while striking out six.

Trailing by a narrow 2-0 deficit entering the bottom of the fifth, Hawai'i put the first two runners aboard with a hit and a hit-by-pitch. The Warriors tied the game on a sacrifice-bunt that the hitter, shortstop Jacob Sheldon-Collins reached on by way of an error. Another hit-by-pitch would chase OU senior left-hander Jeffrey Curran (Long Beach, Calif.) from the game. Junior righty Ralph Garza Jr. (New Braunfels, Texas) entered with the bases loaded and nobody out. The Sooners conceded the game-tying run, but turned a double play and left the potential go-ahead run at third with another groundball out induced by Garza.

Curran tossed four-plus innings and allowed two unearned runs on three hits and two walks to go with one strikeout. Garza was strong with three innings of scoreless-relief. He surrendered just one hit and one walk to 10 batters faced.

In the visitor's half of the sixth, Oklahoma got its offense going again with an infield-single by Hermelyn. He scored on a double to left-center by junior second baseman Kolbey Carpenter (Waco, Texas) to put the Sooners on top, 3-2. He was immediately followed by junior left fielder Hunter Haley (Nacogdoches, Texas), who drilled a 3-0 pitch over the wall in right for a two-run home run, his third of the season and the Sooners' first of the series, that pushed the score to 5-2.

Oklahoma went back to its bullpen for the eighth. After junior right-hander Thomas McIlraith (Amarillo, Texas), the Sooners turned to Evans. He put away the first two batters he faced, but then the Warriors made it a one-run game with a triple into the right field corner off the bat of second baseman Jonathan Weeks. Weeks came in to score the game-tying run on a single to left by catcher Chayce Ka'aua.

Evans and UH right-handed closer Cody Culp then went toe-to-toe through the 11^th. The Sooners threatened in both the 10^th and 11^th by getting the leadoff hitter aboard with singles from junior center fielder Craig Aikin (Coppell, Texas) and sophomore pinch-hitter Austin O'Brien (Owasso, Okla.), but that was all OU could muster.

Culp (0-1) threw three innings in the loss for Hawai'i. He was hit for all three runs in the 12^th and gave up three hits and two walks.

Carpenter finished 3-for-5 on the night with two runs, one RBI, a triple and a double. Hermelyn added a 3-for-4 game with a run, RBI and a double. Neuse and Aikin also added two-hit performances.

Weeks led the Warrior lineup with a 2-for-4 game with two runs and two RBI.

The series wraps with game four scheduled for 6:35 pm CT on Sunday afternoon with junior right-hander Corey Copping (Temple City, Calif.) throwing for the Sooners.