OU Baseball: Oklahoma Beats K-State Again, Wins Series

The Sooners stayed on top of the Big 12 standings with their 10th league win behind nine extra base hits, including three home runs.
Oklahoma OF Jason Walk
Oklahoma OF Jason Walk / NATHAN J. FISH/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY

By OU Media Relations

NORMAN — Oklahoma took the conference series over Kansas State with a 11-4 win Saturday in front of a sellout crowd at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman. 

The Sooners (20-14, 10-4 Big 12) stayed atop the Big 12 standings with their 10th conference win of the season, powering past the Wildcats (21-12, 7-7 Big 12) with nine extra-base hits. OU blasted a trio of home runs courtesy of freshman Jason Walk and seniors Anthony Mackenzie and Michael Snyder. 

OU starting right-handed pitcher Kyson Witherspoon was in a groove to start the game, retiring nine of the first 10 batters he faced. The Sooners gave him run support at the bottom of the third. After a walk drawn by sophomore Easton Carmichael, Snyder unloaded on a pitch to left field to give OU a 2-0 lead through three. 

OU scratched its fourth run across in the fourth on Walk’s third home run of his freshman campaign, and second homer in the last three games. 

After Witherspoon put the Wildcats down in order again at the top of the fifth, the Sooners added another three runs on four hits in the bottom half. Snyder led off the frame with a double, leading to a Mackenzie two-run home run over the left field wall, his fourth of the season. Three batters later, after a Kendall Pettis double, junior Scott Mudler brought him home on a ground-rule double to make it 6-0 Sooners through five. 

K-State made a rally at the top of the sixth, scoring four runs on four hits. After a pair of singles, a two-run triple, RBI single and run-scoring groundout put KSU on the board. The four runs in the sixth would all the Wildcats would score in the game as senior lefty Carter Campbell entered and went two scoreless innings. 

OU put an exclamation point on the win in the eighth with five more runs on six hits and a KSU error. Mudler led off the frame with his second double of the day before back to back bunt singles from freshmen Jaxon Willits and Walk. Mudler scored on Walk’s bunt down the right line, prior to a two-run double from Carmichael. After an RBI single from Mackenzie and a Wildcat error that allowed freshman Isaiah Lane to score, the score blossomed to 11-4, OU. 

Kyson’s twin brother, Malachi Witherspoon, entered in the eighth and retired six of the seven batters he faced to close the game, striking out a pair. 

K. Witherspoon (3-2) earned his third win of the season, going 5.1 innings and allowing four runs on five hits with two walks and eight strikeouts. The OU pitching staff combined for 10 strikeouts, good for the 17th time of OU’s 34 games that the OU arms have registered double-digit strikeouts. 

At the plate, Walk recorded his first three-hit game of the freshman’s career, going 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs. Mackenzie brought in a trio, going 2-for-5 with two runs scored. 

Saturday’s attendance of 4,011 ranked fourth in program single-game attendance at L. Dale Mitchell Park as the crowd witnessed OU’s second home Big 12 series victory of 2024. 

The teams meet for the series finale Sunday at 2 p.m.

 


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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.