Cast of Characters Highlight Halloween Game

NORMAN, Okla. – The University of Oklahoma baseball team hosted its 4^th Annual ALS Awareness Game at L. Dale Mitchell Park in front of a crowd of over 300 fans on Thursday night. The play of the night went to senior Renae Martinez (San Pedro, Calif.), who dressed as Ham Porter from the 1993 classic The Sandlot, blasted a two-run home run in the top of the fifth to tie the game as his team would go on to an eventual 4-3 win.

The player, or players, deserving of the honor of top costume of the night was as tightly contested as the action on the field, but the fans in attendance made it clear that it was junior Kyle Mendenhall (Carlsbad, Calif.) and freshman Brandon Zaragoza (Moore, Okla.) teaming up to play the front and back ends of Slinky Dog from Toy Story. The game also featured its share of super heroes, Minions and the Super Mario Bros.

Halloween Game

The Norman community once again came out in a great show of support for the ALS Foundation, an initiative that is close to the heart of Sooner head coach Pete Hughes. A tradition brought to Norman in 2013, the game serves as one of the team's major 19 Ways initiatives and is a fundraising effort for ALS research. Hughes' Sooner squad plays in honor of Pete Frates, a former standout for Hughes at Boston College who was diagnosed with ALS at the age of 27. Since then, Frates has been on the frontlines pushing for a cure and was a driving force that helped ignite the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014 that yielded positive results in the research community just two years later.

Oklahoma takes the field for one last time this fall as it wraps up its intrasquad world series on Friday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. A busy week in OU fall ball concludes on Sunday as Sooner alumni will lace up their cleats and take to the diamond for a gam e at 11 a.m. Admission is free to both events.