Sooners Fall Short in Opener at TCU

Friday, May 6

Fort Worth, Texas

6 p.m.

University of Oklahoma

27-17, 9-7

TCU

28-16, 13-6

Oklahoma

TCU

Photo by: Justin Kaplan

May 07, 2022 | Baseball

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FORT WORTH, Texas – The Oklahoma baseball team scored three runs in the first inning but was undone by a seven-run fifth inning and fell at No. 21 TCU 9-7 Friday evening at Lupton Stadium.

Tanner Tredaway finished with two hits and three stolen bases and Diego Muniz doubled twice for the Sooners (27-17, 9-7 Big 12). After the Horned Frogs (28-16, 13-6 Big 12) took a 9-3 lead after the sixth, OU fought back with four runs over the last three innings and pulled within 9-7 before falling short.

"I thought Jake (Bennett) was good," Oklahoma head coach Skip Johnson said. "They took the momentum because we didn't play good catch. If we play catch in that situation, it's 3-3 instead of 8-3. The extra runs killed us. Four of the hits they got (in the fifth inning) were with two strikes, so credit them. Our team was resilient in coming back and, really, taking the momentum back. We haven't done that all year. In the seventh, eighth and ninth, we just needed to get a big hit."

Trailing 9-6 in the ninth, Peyton Graham hit a leadoff single and Blake Robertson drew his fourth walk of the game. Graham scored on an errant throw on Jimmy Crooks' fielder's choice to make the score 9-7, but a fly out ended the game.

The Sooners loaded the bases in the top of the seventh on a walk and two singles. Jackson Nicklaus scored on an RBI groundout by Robertson and Kendall Pettis came home on a passed ball. In the eighth inning, Muniz hit a one-out double and scored on a pinch-hit single by Wallace Clark.

Oklahoma came out swinging in the top of the first inning. Tredaway hit a leadoff double and stole home on a double steal with Robertson on first base. Crooks brought home Robertson with an RBI single. Muniz then doubled off the top of the wall in left field to score Crooks and give OU a 3-0 lead.

TCU scored a run in the bottom of the first on a groundout, and the Sooners maintained their 3-1 lead until the fifth inning. The Frogs scored seven runs on seven hits, taking the lead on an RBI double by Bobby Goodloe. Gray Rodgers hit a two-run single and Porter Brown singled in a run to make it 8-3.

Ben Abram retired all six batters he faced in the seventh and eighth innings, striking out three of them. He was the third reliever of starter Jake Bennett (4-3), who went 4.2 innings and struck out five. TCU reliever Cam Brown (3-2) started the second inning and went five frames. Garrett Wright earned the save.

Oklahoma tallied four steals in the game and now has 103 stolen bases this season. This is the 13th time since 1962 and the first since 1996 (104 steals) that an OU team has registered at least 100 steals in a season.

The Sooners and Horned Frogs continue the series at 2 p.m. Saturday.