Sooner Bullpen Dynamite in 3-2 Win

No. 10 Texas Tech

Oklahoma

Highlights

Box Score

Notes

Line Score
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
TTU	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	5	1
OU	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	X	3	10	2

Pitching
	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
W - Tasin (4-1)	5.1	2	0	0	2	6
L - Moreno (1-3)	5.0	8	3	2	1	4
S - Evans (2)	2.2	0	0	0	1	3

Individual Leaders
	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	HR
OU - Alspaugh	4	1	4	1	0	0
TTU - Smith	3	1	2	0	2	0
OU - Haley	3	0	2	0	0	0

Player of the Game
Robert Tasin // RSr. // RHP Tasin came on with no outs and the bases loaded and didn't allow a run. He totaled 5.1-innings of shutout relief to earn the win.

NORMAN, Okla. – A rested bullpen took control and paved the way for a 3-2 win for the University of Oklahoma baseball team over No. 10 Texas Tech in front of 1,412 at L. Dale Mitchell Park on Sunday afternoon. The Sooners claimed the first Big 12 series of the season with a second-straight win to improve to 17-9 and 2-1, while the Red Raiders fell to 16-8 and 1-2.

“It's a good way to start conference play, especially at home,” opened head coach Pete Hughes. “Hopefully, that'll keep people coming out and get the place a little louder. That's a really good team over there and [Texas Tech] is going to win a lot of games. I liked that it showed the depth of our program. We used a lot of guys, played in tight spots, rebounded after a game-one loss where we got thumped. A lot of good things happened this weekend. It was a good character win.”

Tech had a run in on two hits and two walks to load the bases with nobody out in the top of the first against OU's redshirt-junior left-handed starter Adam Choplick (Denton, Texas). Hughes immediately turned to his bullpen; a luxury he had following sophomore RHP Alec Hansen's (Loveland, Colo.) complete game the day before.

Redshirt-senior right-hander Robert Tasin (Klein, Texas) righted the Sooner Schooner and limited the damage to one run as he got a strikeout, pop out and groundout to send Oklahoma to the plate.

“[Tasin] won the game for us,” continued Hughes. “There's always that one inning that sort of dictates the game and you just don't know what it is. And sure enough, it was the first inning. That thing could've gone south; that's could've been a five-run deal in a second, and I don't like the way we play from behind. So that's all that I was thinking. So Robert comes in with bases loaded, no outs, 1-0, and I told him 'don't try to do too much. If you can damage control this thing, you let up one run, we come in and it's, 2-0.'

“For him to go, punch out, pop-up, ground out, it's unbelievable. I can't say enough. And then for him to get settled in, they weren't comfortable against him. He's just a senior who's ready for it and gave us a chance to win. He was awesome.”

The Sooners picked up the momentum in the bottom half, starting with a double by redshirt-senior right fielder Taylor Alspaugh (Broken Arrow, Okla.). He went to third on a base hit to shallow left-center by Craig Aikin (Coppell, Texas) and scored when the ball wasn't fielded cleanly to knot the game at 1-1.

The bottom of the third opened with a hard double into the left-center gap by freshman second baseman Kyle Mendenhall (Carlsbad, Calif.), who moved to third on a sacrifice-bunt by junior first baseman Kolbey Carpenter (Waco, Texas). Alspaugh brought in Mendenhall with the go-ahead run on a single to left for his second hit of the day.

Tasin continued to cruise through the middle innings; working around a two-out rally by the Red Raiders in the fourth. With two outs, Texas Tech put two runners in scoring position with a double by center fielder Hunter Hargrove and an OU error. Tasin then shut the door with his fifth strikeout to maintain a one-run lead.

The Sooners added, what proved to be a needed, insurance run in the bottom of the fifth. Junior catcher Chris Shaw (Winnipeg, Man.) drew a lead-off walk and moved into scoring position on a sacrifice-bunt by Mendenhall. Carpenter smacked a base hit up the middle and Hughes gave Shaw the green light at third to head home to push the lead to 3-1.

Junior RHP Keaton Hernandez (Palm Springs, Calif.), the second OU reliever of the day, issued a one-out walk and hit-by-pitch in the top of the seventh. Junior lefty Jacob Evans (Broken Arrow, Okla.) entered and saw one inherited runner score on an error at first, but limited the damage to a run with a strikeout and a grounder back to the mound.

Tasin (4-1) picked up the win by matching a career-high 5.1-scoreless innings pitched. He surrendered just two hits and two walks, while striking out six. Evans notched his second save of the season in 2.2 hitless-innings to go with three strikeouts and one walk.

Alspaugh finished the game 4-for-4 with a run and a RBI. Junior left fielder Hunter Haley (Nacogdoches, Texas) added a 2-for-3 afternoon.

For the Red Raiders, right-hander Dominic Moreno (1-3) took the loss in five innings of work. He scattered eight hits, allowing at least one in every inning pitched, and one walk for three runs, two earned, and four strikeouts. Right-hander Corey Taylor added three innings of scoreless, two-hit relief.

The Sooners are back in action on Tuesday, March 24 for a non-conference game on the road at TCU.

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Players Mentioned

Craig Aikin

Taylor Alspaugh

Kolbey Carpenter

Adam Choplick

Jacob Evans

Hunter Haley

Alec Hansen

Keaton Hernandez

Mac James

Kyle Mendenhall

Chris Shaw

Robert Tasin

Robert Tasin

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