Sooners Coast Past Kansas Again in 11-4 Rout

OU now has won the first two games of the series by a combined score of 23-5.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 12:23 pm

By: News On 6

Sooners Coast Past Kansas Again in 11-4 Rout

Originally Published: May 7, 2011 7:34 PM CDT

Corey DeMoss
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

NORMAN, Okla. – The Oklahoma baseball team scored in double digits for the second straight game Saturday in an 11-4 rout of Kansas.

For the second game in a row, Kansas started the scoring with early runs. The Jayhawks scored one run in each of the first two innings, but for the second game in a row they let an early lead get away.

The Sooners got on the board in the third with an RBI single by Casey Johnson, and then tied the game on a bunt single by Cale Ellis. They took their first lead of the game later in the inning on a suicide squeeze by Chris Ellison, and it was all downhill from there.

OU plated two runs in the third and another in the fourth to stretch the lead to 5-2. Kansas cut the lead to two with an RBI double by Kaiana Eldredge in the fifth, but OU responded with its biggest inning of the game in the sixth.

The Sooners batted around, with Caleb Bushyhead providing both the first and third outs. But between those, five straight batters reached base, four of them reached thanks to walks, errors and hit by pitches.

OU ended up plating five runs in the inning, and all five were unearned. That gave the Sooners an 11-3 lead, and it was smooth sailing from there.

Both teams finished the game with nine hits, but the Sooners got more help from the Kansas pitching and defense. The pitchers walked or hit six batters and the defense committed a total of five errors that allowed six unearned runs.

Burch Smith finished with a win for OU after holding Kansas to three runs on seven hits in seven innings of work. Dillon Overton and Kindle Ladd pitched the final two innings and allowed only two combined hits.

OU now has won the first two games of its series against Kansas by a combined score of 23-5. The two teams will finish their three-game series at 1 p.m. Sunday.