ARLINGTON, Texas — As Oklahoma Sooners baseball coach Skip Johnson settled into his postgame press conference, he smirked a bit. That’s all you could do. Maybe it’s luck. Maybe it was just a bad day at the yard.
Whatever you want to chalk it up to, Oklahoma was fortunate to beat Kansas 7-5 on Thursday at Globe Life Field despite seven (!) errors. Yes you read that correctly. And sure a nice stiff drink wouldn’t hurt.
“I’ve been to three goat ropings, four chili cookoffs and five rodeos and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that,” said Johnson in his opening remarks.
Yep. That’s one way to put it. And sure Oklahoma can laugh (maybe?) about it now, but that wasn’t always the case.
Kansas threatened multiple times. Kyson Witherspoon walked the tight rope in the fourth stranding the bases loaded. Jackson Nicklaus threw a runner out at home plate from shallow right field to complete an inning-ending double play in the seventh.
Fortunate to say the least.
Oklahoma is just the second Division I baseball team to commit seven errors in a win this season, per WarrenNolan. UCLA did the same against Long Beach State back in February.
TURNING POINT IN THE FOURTH
After walking the bases loaded in the fourth inning, Kyson Witherspoon found himself in a pickle. The Sooners were trailing 4-2 at the time. Skip Johnson had a decision to make as Witherspoon’s pitch count hovered near triple digits.
The Sooners skipper decided to leave Witherspoon in, and the sophomore right-hander responded with back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning and flipping the momentum into the Sooners dugout.
“When I describe pitchers, I describe them as you have to pitch with your head and your heart. That’s the separator for me. He showed you how good he was because he pitched with his heart. At that moment, he just willed his way to get a strikeout. He has that in him. He has that kind of stuff,” said Johnson.
And that kind of stuff is a 96 mph fastball that he blew by Collier Cranford for the second out in the inning. Witherspoon then won a 12 pitch at-bat to Ty Wisdom ending the frame with a called third strike on a 3-2 pitch.
“I think Kyson tried really hard. When we made a couple errors and try to pitch out of the jam, but you can’t do that,” Johnson said. “You’ve got to get back to just executing one pitch at a time. It’s a good learning lesson for him to stay in the moment and just make pitches.
“It was actually a momentum changer because we came in and scored the runs.”
MOMENTUM SHIFTER
Following the Witherspoon tight rope act in the top half, Oklahoma responded as it has all season. Kendall Pettis doubled down the left field line. Scott Mudler followed with his second RBI single leading to Jaxon Willits’ first big moment of the postseason.
The result? A no-doubter over the right field wall. His ninth of the season since April 7. The Sooner freshman delivered on the biggest of stages.
“Yes, you could definitely feel Kyson go in there and grab the momentum back. Going into my at-bat (Reese Dutton), hadn’t thrown me a change up in my last two at-bats so I was sitting between fastball and change up. I got a fastball up and I hit it hard,” said Willits, who went 2-for-5 with two RBIs.
Oklahoma added two insurance runs in the seventh, thanks in part to a pair of triples. Easton Carmichael opened the inning with a triple and was brought home by a Michael Snyder RBI single. Jackson Nicklaus – who has hit the ball hard all weekend- tripled past a diving John Nett in centerfield to score Snyder.
The Sooners outhit Kansas 14-4.
Wacky.
SEVEN ERRORS? WHAT?
All seven of Oklahoma’s errors were routine plays. Not sure if that should make you feel better or worse about the situation. Let’s start there. Obviously, Oklahoma was fortunate it didn’t cost them the game, especially in the postseason.
Kendall Pettis dropped a fly ball in left field. Anthony Mackenzie and Jaxon Willits committed a pair. Michael Snyder let a ground ball get through his glove. John Spikerman misplayed a base hit to center.
Sloppy.
The good news? Oklahoma’s pitching staff held it together. It has yet to allow an earned run through the first two games of the Big 12 Tournament.
Carter Campbell, Dylan Crooks and Malachi Witherspoon combined to go five innings, allowing just two hits and an unearned run.
“It was really big for Carter Campbell to do that. Dylan (Crooks) was really good in the moment. You see it all the time in college baseball he didn’t back away from throwing strikes. (Lenny) Ashby is a really good hitter and we knew that going into it,” said Johnson.
NEXT UP
Oklahoma advances to the bracket final on Friday for the right to play in the Big 12 Tournament Championship game. They will play the winner of Friday’s 9 a.m. elimination game between TCU and Kansas.
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