5/7/2023 baseball Edit

OU Baseball: Sooners drop two of three at No. 12 West Virginia

Hayden Farrar • OUInsider

Intern

Oklahoma dropped a rubber match with No. 12 West Virginia on Sunday in a matchup that featured a 2.5-hour rain delay by a final tally of 9-3. The Sooners had won seven of their last nine games and had broken up a 10-game winning streak for the Mountaineers with a 6-3 victory in Morgantown on Saturday before Sunday's defeat.

LHP Carter Campbell (5-4) got the start for the Sooners and allowed five earned runs off of three hits and a walk in 1.2 innings of work and took the loss. RHP Carson Atwood came in to relieve Campbell and pitched 1.1 innings of relief on the front and back end of the rain delay and allowed an earned run on two hits.

Skip Johnson turned to LHP Jamie Hitt out of the bullpen for four innings in relief of Atwood. Johnson gave Campbell the start and saved Hitt for later innings with the inevitable rain delay in the forecast to prevent wasting a starting outing for the Texas Tech transfer. Hitt allowed three earned runs and four hits but also tallied five strikeouts. Johnson then turned to RHP Carson Pierce in the bottom of the eighth for the final inning in a 9-3 deficit.

Oklahoma got all of their three runs in the fifth inning on back-to-back-to-back singles. Right fielder Bryce Madron laced a single to right field and Anthony MacKenzie came around to score on an error before shortstop Dakota Harris and left fielder Kendall Pettis hit back-to-back RBI singles to cut the deficit to 7-3.

Despite the loss, Oklahoma went 2-2 this week with quality wins and boosted its NCAA Tournament resume. The Sooners earned a 10-7 win at No. 16 Dallas Baptist last Tuesday and the aforementioned 6-3 win at No. 12 West Virginia (36-12) on Saturday before ultimately dropping the series to the Mountaineers. Oklahoma saw its RPI rise from No. 59 on Monday to now at No. 45 with its two quality road wins.

Oklahoma will not play a midweek game and will have a four-day break before traveling to Spokane, Washington for a three-game nonconference series with Gonzaga (18-27) before a midweek tussle with UT Arlington in Norman the following Tuesday (25-21). Oklahoma State (33-14) will then come to Norman to close the regular season.