Sooners Take Series with 10-2 Sunday Win

NORMAN, Okla. – Oklahoma scored four times in the third inning and another four times in the fifth as the Sooners topped Kansas State, 10-2, Sunday afternoon at L. Dale Mitchell Park. With the win, Oklahoma won the series and improved to 31-21-1 overall and 8-15-1 in Big 12 play. The defeat dropped K-State to 24-27 overall and 8-16 in the conference.

Oklahoma freshman right hander Ryan Duke (6-4) kept Kansas State in check all game long, allowing just one run on four hits, issuing two walks and striking out four batters in a little over seven innings to pick up the win. K-State starter Justin Murray (2-2) was saddled with the loss after allowing five runs on six hits in just 3.1 innings.

Offensively, Oklahoma was led by J.T. Wise who finished the game 3-for-4 with four RBI, three of which came on a home run in the third inning. The Sooners also received two-RBI games from Mike Gosse and Casey Johnson.

K-State’s Dane Yelovich came off the bench to finish 2-for-2 with one run scored. Brett Scott extended his career-long hitting streak to seven games as he went 1-for-3 with one RBI, while Byron Wiley was also 1-for-3 with one run driven in.

Oklahoma put up the game’s first run in the bottom of the first as Aljay Davis hit a one-out single, stole second, and then scored two batters on a Wise single. The damage could have been more, however, as Aaron Baker followed with a lined shot into the gap, but Jason King made an outstanding diving catch to save a run and get the Cats out of the inning.

The Sooners broke the game open with a four-run third inning as two singles sandwiched around a hit-by-pitch brought in one run. Wise was next and hit a 1-1 pitch over the right-field wall for a three-run shot to give the Sooners a comfortable 5-0 lead.

Kansas State missed a golden opportunity in the fifth inning when Drew Biery reached on a dropped third strike and Wiley followed with a walk. Both runners moved up on a passed ball, but Duke struck out two and forced a groundout to end the threat and keep the Sooners up by five.

Oklahoma put the game away with another multi-run inning, scoring four times in the fifth off reliever Thomas Rooke Following a leadoff fly out, Rooke walked one, gave up a base hit and hit a batter to load the bases for Casey Johnson who hit a double to right field, which scored two, and followed by giving up a RBI single to Trey Sperring for another run, pushing the lead to 8-0.

The Sooners weren’t done there, however, as Chase Bayuk came out of the pen to allow a sacrifice fly by pinch hitter Spencer Selby to plate the ninth run of the day.

Kansas State broke up the shutout in the top of the eighth as Yelovich and Daniel Dellasega began the inning with back-to-back singles and, two batters later, Scott doubled down the left-field line to score Yelovich.

Gosse answered K-State’s run in the top of the inning as he belted a solo shot over the right-field wall for the final Oklahoma run of the game.

Wiley picked up his first home run of the season the next inning as he belted a pitch over the right field wall for K-State’s second run of the game. It was Wiley’s first home run since May 20, 2007, having gone 54 games and 128 at bats without a round-tripper.