Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Beat Pacific to Open Non-Conference Weekend

Cade Horton tossed four shutout innings in his first collegiate start after missing the 2020 season due to Tommy John surgery.

Home sweet home.

After a stellar win over No. 4 Texas Tech on Tuesday night in Amarillo, Oklahoma returned to the friendly confines of L. Dale Mitchell Park on Thursday night to begin a non-conference weekend against Pacific.

Riding the momentum from the victory over the Red Raiders, the Sooners won in decisive fashion over the Tigers by a final score of 7-3.

Making his first career start on the mound was right-hander Cade Horton, who had previously only made short relief appearances in his return from Tommy John surgery.

After some early jitters that caused him to walk the first two batters, Horton settled in quite nicely working four shutout innings, allowing only one hit and striking out two.

Oklahoma got the scoring started in the fourth, with Jimmy Crooks continuing his hot stretch with an RBI single.

Blake Robertson came in to score on a wild pitch later in the frame, giving the Sooners a 2-0 lead after four.

Peyton Graham added to the lead one inning later with a sacrifice fly to bring home John Spikerman, who had just notched his first career hit, extending the OU advantage to 3-0.

First career hit for @jg__spikerman23. Congrats, Spike! pic.twitter.com/D54wktEd7A

— Oklahoma Baseball (@OU_Baseball) April 15, 2022

After the Tigers got onto the board with a solo home run in the sixth, the Oklahoma bats would go for a crooked number in the bottom half to push the game out of reach.

Wallace Clark picked up an RBI on a sacrifice fly to plate the first run before Robertson, who has had a monstrous season in Norman, poked a three-run double down the left field line to have the Sooners holding a commanding 7-1 edge.

𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘆 𝗵𝗼𝘁, 𝗕-𝗥𝗼𝗯!

💻 https://t.co/EpKdLkv4pd pic.twitter.com/WDZxMPSmZO

— Oklahoma Baseball (@OU_Baseball) April 15, 2022

After Horton came out at the end of the fourth, Carson Atwood, Chazz Martinez, Aaron Calhoun, Keegan Allen and Jaret Godman would team up to record the final 15 outs allowing three runs and locking up the victory. 

The win is Oklahoma’s 20th of the season as the Sooners move eight games above .500 on the campaign at 20-12.

OU will return to action at L. Dale Mitchell Park on Friday evening when they host Lamar at 6:30 p.m. in Norman.