Missouri Tops Oklahoma 8-7, Wins First Big 12 Title

Oklahoma's ninth inning rally came up short Sunday afternoon in a narrow 8-7 loss to the Missouri Tigers in the championship game of the Big 12 Tournament.

The Tigers' win earned them their first Big 12 Championship title and is the school's first conference crown since 1980.

MU's Ben Turner and Dillon Everett each drove in two runs a piece, while Blake Brown scored the go-ahead run in the eighth inning for the Tigers.

In the top of the eighth, Missouri's Brown led off with a single. Turner laid down a sacrifice bunt that was fielded by OU's Steven Okert but he overthrew it and the ball skipped into center with Brown going to third and Turner to second. After a walk, Opel grounded into a double play with Brown scoring the go-ahead run.

In the bottom of the ninth, The Sooners put the leadoff man on, bunted him to second and after a walk had the winning run at first. One out later, pinch Eric Simpson entered the game and connected on a grounder through the right side but it hit Caleb Bushyhead as it sailed to right. Opel's throw home beat pinch runner Dustin Dishman and Turner applied the tag even though it was moot.

Missouri started off the game with four runs in the first inning, the most runs allowed by Oklahoma all season. OU starter Damien Magnifico recorded just one out before giving up four runs off two hits and a walk along with two errors by Oklahoma.

The Sooners got on the board in the second when Matt Oberste managed his fifth home run of the season and third in the last two days.

OU's Dillon Overton relieved Magnifico to pitch the next 4.1 innings recording seven strikeouts. He gave up nine hits and a walk in that span before giving the ball up to Steven Okert.

Oklahoma cut the lead in half with Caleb Bushyhead's RBI single in the fourth and the Sooners would go on to score five more runs by the end of the sixth innings to knot the game 7-7.

In the eighth Missouri's Jake Fisher entered the ball game with the bases loaded and zero outs. Fisher induced a double play but Missouri scored the go-ahead run charged to Okert making it 8-7.

The Sooners put runners on first and second with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and just as the crowd began to wonder if OU would make a comeback, is when Simpson singled through to right, but Bushyhead was out at home to end the game.

The loss dropped OU's overall record to 38-22 while Missouri improved to 32-26. The Sooners strong play this season is expected to put them in the NCAA tournament, but the pairings have not been released yet.

This is the final season Missouri is playing in the Big 12 before leaving for the Southeastern Conference next season.