Sooners baseball bounces back in Arlington
Just a night after suffering its worst loss of the season, Sooners baseball bounced back Wednesday night, beating UT-Arlington 5-1.
Perhaps getting back on the field as soon as possible was the best medicine after the Tuesday night Bedlam debacle in which Oklahoma trailed by a touchdown and extra point before even taking their first hacks.
Now the Sooners can unpack and settle in for what will be an extended stay in the DFW Metroplex, heading into a weekend series versus TCU.
But first here’s three things that changed – drastically– over the last 24 hours:
EASIER TO PLAY FROM AHEAD
Pretty simple here. They weren’t chasing seven runs the first time Oklahoma’s leadoff hitter John Spikerman climbed into the batter’s box. That, uhhh, makes things a tad bit easier.
In fact, it was actually Oklahoma that grabbed a first inning lead by putting together a two-out rally following an Easton Carmichael walk. Anthony Mackenzie doubled to open the scoring. Michael Snyder shot an RBI single back through the middle to score Mackenzie. You could feel the collective exhale from the Sooner dugout.
John Spikerman tacked on a sacrifice fly in the seventh. And two more Sooners pushed across in the ninth on a dropped flyball in right.
It wasn’t the most complete offensive effort, but it was enough.
BOUNCE BACK ON THE BUMP
A night after allowing 15 runs on 17 hits, Oklahoma needed exactly what it got from starter Carson Atwood, Grant Stevens, Ryan Lambert and Reid Hensley.
Even before Tuesday night’s meltdown on the mound, Oklahoma knew this week was going to be different with the pair of midweek games. They probably didn’t know they’d have to throw so many pitchers in the first of this week’s mini-five game marathon which made Atwood (3 innings, 4 Ks) and Stevens’ (4 innings, 4Ks) performances that much more important.
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For the Sooner starter Atwood, it was about pounding the strike zone early and often. With relative ease, Atwood matched his career-best four strikeouts.
Stevens allowed just three hits over his four innings of work with the Mavericks’ lone run coming in the sixth on back-to-back two-out hits.
Ryan Lambert and Reid Hensley each worked an inning on the backend in the eighth and ninth.
GOOD RESPONSE TO BEDLAM MISERY
It could have been fairly easy to show up in Arlington and go through the motions. Make no mistake about it. Oklahoma State kicked their ass Tuesday night. Good news? It’s baseball.
Skip Johnson always talks about the game wanting you to feel sorry for yourself. That didn’t happen. They jumped out of the gates with a pair of first inning runs and Atwood, Stevens showed up. Compounding the Bedlam loss with a setback in Arlington would have been bad. Not necessarily catastrophic, but it might have made you start taking a deeper look at this team’s flaws. It feels like tonight was a good response.
This weekend trip across town to Forth Worth is going to be interesting. It’s a good barometer to see where this thing is at.
