All Sooners

Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Take Home Opener Against Wichita State

Left-hander Braden Carmichael tossed five innings of one-run ball to pickup the victory in his first start of the season.

Josh Callaway

Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Take Home Opener Against Wichita State
Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Take Home Opener Against Wichita State /

NORMAN – After a successful opening weekend at the State Farm College Baseball Showdown in Arlington, TX, Oklahoma returned to home soil on Tuesday for the 2022 home opener against the Wichita State Shockers.

The Sooners kept the positive momentum rolling with a 6-2 win over the Shockers in the first of three meetings between the two clubs this season. 

OU Wichita State box

"It's crucial that we've done that," third baseman Cade Horton said about getting off to a good start to the season. "Today's win was really good because it's a midweek, it's cold weather, a good disciplined team that we're playing, and to come out and take care of business, it was a really good team win moving forward."

Getting the ball for the first midweek contest of the year was left-hander Braden Carmichael, who showed flashes of being a legitimate force in the rotation a year ago.

He got his 2022 campaign off to a strong start on Tuesday, tossing five solid innings allowing just one run and six hits while striking out four.

It wouldn’t take long for Carmichael to get some run support, as the Sooners struck for three runs in the first inning on a two-run double by center fielder Tanner Tredaway and an RBI single up the middle by third baseman Cade Horton - the first hit of his OU career.

The Shockers got one of those runs back in the third on a sacrifice fly, but it was the Oklahoma defense that stood out on the play.

With runners on first and third, right fielder Sebastian Orduno ran down a ball in foul ground to make a spectacular sliding catch. Then, hopped up and fired to second to nab a runner trying to advance.

The Sooners pushed the lead back to three runs in the bottom half of the inning on the second run-scoring knock of the day by Horton to make it a 4-1 game.

The score remained there into the seventh when Wichita State was presented with an opportunity to get back into the game with runners on first and third base and just one out.

But, Oklahoma reliever Trevin Michael forced a huge 6-4-3 double play to end the inning and keep the game frozen at 4-1.

OU then tacked on a run in the bottom half of the inning thanks to the labor of Tredaway, who reached base on a walk and then stole second, third and home all in succession to make it a 5-1 game.

Tredaway became the first Sooner to record three steals in a game since 2012 and he accomplished the feat in just one inning.

Also worth noting is that both Kendall Pettis and Peyton Graham had three steals each of their own on Tuesday, with the Sooners having an absurd 11 total as a team. 

"I think it's just taking advantage of the game," Skip Johnson said about the 11 steals. "Scoring three runs in the first then you can keep trying to put the pressure on them."

Oklahoma added on once more in the following frame with first baseman Blake Robertson connecting on a two-out RBI double to right field to extend the advantage to 6-1. 

Michael, albeit after allowing a late run to cross, capped the game off the ninth completing his fourth inning out of the bullpen to seal the 6-2 victory. 

The win moves the Sooners to 3-1 on the year with all three victories coming behind stellar pitching.

"I thought they've been really themselves," Johnson said of his pitchers so far this season. "That's the biggest thing. The environment at Globe Life, you're looking in that environment if they can be themselves number one. Number two we're looking to see if they can throw strikes and be competitive and throw quality pitches, and they've done that so far."

Next up for Oklahoma will be the first home series of the season against Northwestern State beginning on Friday evening at L. Dale Mitchell Park. 

Published
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. You can follow him on Twitter at @JoshMCallaway.

Home/Baseball