OU Baseball: With Season On the Line, Oklahoma's Bats Went Silent

The Sooners narrowly avoided being shutout by UConn on Monday, officially ending OU's final season as a member of the Big 12.

Alonzo Adams-USA TODAY Sports

NORMAN — Oklahoma’s rally through the Norman Regional fell one win short on Monday night. 

The Connecticut Huskies put on a defensive clinic, quelling any attempts for OU to string together any offense, to advance to next weekend’s Super Regionals. 

A pair of two-run bombs in the fourth inning proved to be all the Huskies needed. Oklahoma dropped in seven hits, but were shutout and saw its season come to an end with a 7-1 defeat at L Dale Mitchell Park. 

"Just didn’t play very good tonight. Couldn’t ever sustain a rally," OU coach Skip Johnson said after the loss. "Hats off to UConn. They did a great job."

Johnson’s Sooners finished 40-21 on the year, while UConn improved to 35-24 and advanced to take on the 8-seeded Florida State Seminoles in Tallahassee. 

Final Box Score / OU Stats

After Oklahoma got a pair of seven inning outings on the mound to hold off elimination on Sunday, OU’s pitching gave out after one trip through the lineup Monday night. 

Carson Atwood started strong for the Sooners, retiring nine of the first 10 batters he faced, but the fourth inning proved to be treacherous. 

Shortstop Paul Tammaro continued his excellent regional by leading the inning off with his second single of the night. 

Two batters later, UConn left fielder Korey Morton belted a two-run shot to left field to break the deadlock. 

Atwood then appeared as if he’d steady and get out of the inning. 

He induced an easy grounder to OU shortstop Jaxon Willits for the second out of the inning, then he struck out Huskies’ designated hitter Tyler Minick, but disaster struck. 

Oklahoma catcher Scott Mudler dropped the third strike, then bobbled the ball trying to reach out and tag Minick. His throw over to first base sailed past Michael Synder and rolled all the way to the right field corner, allowing Minick to dash all the way to third. 

Johnson replaced Atwood with Carter Campbell, but where Minick actually ended up was trivial. Maddix Dalena crushed the second two-run shot of the inning toward the fans on the right field berm, giving the visitors a 4-0 lead. 

"It changed a lot. It kind of took the wind out of our sails," Johnson said.

Oklahoma struggled to poke holes in the Huskies defense, and UConn went back to work in the fifth. 

Campbell’s day came to an end two batters into the frame, and he left a runner on second base for junior right-hander Ryan Lambert. 

The new OU pitcher walked another, and back-to-back RBI-singles from Luke Broadhurst and Morton saw the deficit balloon to 6-0, completely deflating the crowd at L Dale Mitchell Park in the process. 

Caleb Shpur, who has wiped away hit after hit all weekend in centerfield, tormented the Sooners again in the bottom of the fifth. 

He robbed Mudler of a one-out hit with a diving catch, preventing OU from building any momentum as the game rolled into the sixth. 

Lambert held ground in the top half of the inning, bringing the top of Oklahoma’s order up to try and cut into the deficit. 

Sensing the desperation of the moment, the fans rose to their feet throughout the entire bottom half of the sixth.

The Sooners got back-to-back two-out singles from Easton Carmichael and Synder, but UConn starter Gabe Van Emon retired Willits after a seven-pitch battle to keep OU off the board and extinguish the hopes of the crimson faithful. 

"We never could get a leadoff guy from the first inning on," Johnson said. "Every offense — when you play offense you’ve got to get leadoff hitters on. Every offense is predicated to get leadoff hitters on, not just ours."

Oklahoma didn’t put another runner aboard until the ninth, though the Huskies added a seventh run in the eighth courtesy of a TC Simmons single. 

Jackson Nicklaus hit into a double play withe the bases loaded and no outs in the ninth, but he did score OU's lone run of the night.

The bottom four hitters in the OU lineup combined to go 0-for-13 at the plate as the door closed on the Sooners’ season. 

"Just proud of the guys for fighting and continuing to fight," Johnson said. "... We didn’t play good enough. We just didn’t. We just picked a bad day to play bad."