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OU Baseball: Oklahoma Bounces Back With Victory Over UT-Arlington

The Sooners scored twice in the first inning, then rode a strong pitching performance from Carson Atwood and three relievers.

John E. Hoover

OU Baseball: Oklahoma Bounces Back With Victory Over UT-Arlington
OU Baseball: Oklahoma Bounces Back With Victory Over UT-Arlington /

By OU Media Relations

ARLINGTON, TX – Oklahoma opened a four-game road swing with a 5-1 win at UT Arlington on Wednesday night at Clay Gould Ballpark in Arlington.

The Sooners (10-6) never trailed in the game after scoring a pair at the top of the first en route to their 10th win of the 2024 campaign.

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In the first, after a walk drawn by sophomore Easton Carmichael, senior Anthony Mackenzie ripped a double down the left line to score one Sooner run. The next at-bat, redshirt senior Michael Snyder plated Mackenzie on a single to center.

Four scoreless innings ensued from the second to sixth as OU starting right-handed pitcher Carson Atwood allowed just one hit and no runs in his three innings of work, walking one while striking out a career-best tying four.

At the bottom of the sixth, the Mavs (6-11) got on the board via RBI triple to right field but OU reliever Grant Stevens stranded the runner at third to limit the damage.

OU got the run back at the top of the seventh. Following a walk drawn by redshirt senior Kendall Pettis and freshman Jaxon Willits’ fifth double of the season, junior John Spikerman lifted a sacrifice fly to left to score Pettis.

The Sooners stretched the final score to 5-1 in the ninth. After a Willits walk and steal, and single from senior Bryce Madron, Mackenzie ripped a hard hit ball to right that bounced off the right fielder’s glove, allowing two to score.

Stevens (3-0) earned the win in relief, pitching four innings and allowing one run on three hits to go with four strikeouts and no walks. Fellow relievers Ryan Lambert and Reid Hensley closed the game, going an inning a piece and striking out one and two, respectively.

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At the plate, nine Sooners registered hits in the contest with Spikerman, Mackenzie and Snyder all pushing runs across.

Oklahoma continues a busy week as the team continues Big 12 play this weekend in Fort Worth vs. No. 12 TCU (15-2, 1-2). The teams meet for a three-game conference series at Lupton Stadium Friday through Sunday with first pitches at 6:30, 5 and 1 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.

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