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Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Crush Liberty to Open NCAA Tournament

The OU offense stayed piping hot going for 16 runs in support of Jake Bennett who supplied another solid outing.

Josh Callaway

Getting off on the right foot.

After a red-hot finish to the regular season and a championship in the Big 12 tournament, Oklahoma began their NCAA Tournament journey on Friday in the first game of the Gainesville Regional against the Liberty Flames.

Through one game in the big dance, the Sooners overwhelmingly maintained their high-level of play opening up the weekend with a dominant 16-3 win over the Flames at Condron Family Ballpark in Gainesville, FL.

OU offense Liberty box
OU Pitching Liberty

While Oklahoma would roll on Friday, things didn’t get off to the best start with ace left-hander Jake Bennett on the bump.

The Flames jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the opening frame with all three runs coming with two outs.

But, fortunately for the Sooners, Bennett would settle in after that - and the OU bats would come to life in major fashion.

After a scoreless first trip to the plate, Oklahoma struck for four runs in the second inning to take their first lead of the tournament.

Wallace Clark got the scoring started poking an RBI single the other way to score Jimmy Crooks from second base.

Kendall Pettis then evened the game with a two-run home run to left field - just his third of the season.

Freshman John Spikerman, who had a monstrous NCAA Tournament debut on Friday, followed Pettis with a home run of his own to put OU in front 4-3.

Two innings later, Spikerman would strike again with a two-run single up the middle to push the Sooners lead out to 6-3.

The fifth inning would then be where Oklahoma really broke things open, going for a massive 8-run frame to virtually put the game away.

Jackson Nicklaus got the party started with a two-run single followed by RBI hits from Brett Squires and Spikerman (again) to make it 10-3 Sooners.

Star shortstop Peyton Graham then picked up the big swing of the day to cap off the huge inning, absolutely hammering a grand slam to deep left center to make it a laugher at 14-3.

Bennett's day would come to an end in the sixth inning with two outs and the bases loaded, with Carson Atwood entering to escape the jam.Β 

On the whole, on an afternoon where he clearly wasn't at his best, it goes down as another quality outing for the Sooners' ace as he picks up his eighth win of the year.Β 

After an empty sixth inning, Oklahoma tacked on a couple more runs in the seventh with Crooks looping a two-run double down the left field line to extend the advantage to 16-3.Β 

Following Atwood, who worked a clean seventh inning, right-handed relievers Aaron Calhoun and Ben Abram worked scoreless frames in the eighth and ninth to finish the game.Β 

The win moves Oklahoma to 38-20 on the season and pushes them into the winner’s bracket of the Gainesville Regional.

Next up, the Sooners will face the winner between No. 13 Florida and Central Michigan at 6 p.m. CT on Saturday evening back at Condron Family Ballpark

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Josh Callaway
JOSH CALLAWAY

Josh has been with AllSooners since June of 2021 after spending the previous year with Sooners Wire via USA TODAY Sports. He is also a high school sports broadcaster for the Oklahoma Sports Network.Β You can follow him on Twitter at @JoshMCallaway.

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