Sooners top Jayhawks, avoid elimination
Starting pitcher Kyle Tyler allowed just two runs and three hits in six innings as Oklahoma defeated Kansas 4-2 Friday to stay alive in the Big 12 Tournament.
Kyle Tyler had been waiting for an opportunity to come through as a starter in a big game.
With Oklahoma’s pitching depth stretched thin by the tournament and thinner with injuries, the junior from Westmoore got his opportunity Friday against Kansas in the Big 12 Tournament.
Tyler made the most of it, allowing two runs and three hits over six innings as the Sooners beat the Jayhawks 4-2 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.
Oklahoma (36-22) will face Baylor at 9 a.m. Saturday. The Bears need one win in two games to advance to Sunday’s championship game while Oklahoma would need to beat Baylor twice to advance.
After dropping their tournament opener to the Bears on Wednesday, it seemed unlikely the Sooners would make it to this point.
But with a continuation of performances from unexpected sources — including Tyler — Oklahoma remains alive.
Tyler had been one in a swing role for the Sooners most of the season, regularly starting midweek games and also being available for middle relief during conference series.
“Being put in the bullpen kind of put little damper on my feelings the first couple of days just being the starter the last two years,” Tyler said. “But I think I’ve really stepped up from the bullpen role and to get an opportunity to come out here and be a starter again, it felt great.”
Tyler’s only serious trouble came in the fourth when Kansas scored both its runs thanks to a pair of triples.
But he settled down to get two outs to end the inning and then worked two more relatively clean innings to pass the game along to the bullpen.
“It was very important to try to go deep in the game because our bullpen as it is is very limited just based on Levi (Prater) going down,” Tyler said. “He was a big key and a big part of our guys. But going deep has given a big morale boost to the bullpen showing that they don’t have to do everything. They can rely on the starters.”
Prater, who threw in relief in the first two games of the tournament before suffering an injury in Thursday’s win over Texas, is unavailable for the rest of the tournament.
The Sooners got all the offense they needed in the first, when a couple more players put into unfamiliar roles came up big.
Freshman catcher Justin Mitchell led to the first of three Sooners’ runs in the inning when his single to left and Brandon Zaragoza’s aggressive running forced Kansas into an error that allowed Zaragoza to score.
After Kyle Mendenhall’s RBI single scored Mitchell, Thomas Hughes delivered an RBI double down the left-field line.
Mitchell hit in the cleanup spot for just the second time this season — and the first since the opening weekend — thanks to injuries that kept Steele Walker and Kyler Murray out of the lineup.
That shuffle also helped lead to an opportunity for Hughes, who with four hits in the tournament has doubled his hit total from the regular season.
“Just because I’m playing a little more doesn’t change much for me,” Hughes said. “All of us are locker in every single day. Just because my role’s been a little different these couple days, it hasn’t changed too much.”