Mississippi State whips Sooners, forces ‘if-necessary’ game

THE OKLAHOMAN | NEWSOK.COM

the second, but couldn’t find a way to bring a run across the plate.

The Sooners paid for it when they quickly found themselves down 9-0 in the third.

MSU also had its chances early with runners on base against starter Devon Perez (5-6) — who was pulled during the third inning — but the Bulldogs made the most of them unlike OU.

MSU managed bring a run home on a sacrifice fly to center by catcher Dustin Skelton in the second to take a 1-0 lead, but broke the game open in the third with eight runs to take a 9-0 lead including a 2-run home run by MSU left fielder Rowdey Jordan and four RBI singles.

The Sooners got on the board on a sacrifice fly in third by second baseman Kyle Mendenhall, and had a chance to cut into the lead with two on and no outs in the fourth inning, but again couldn’t push a run across.

OU left seven runners on base through the first four innings of the game and 12 in the game.

The Sooners plated another run in the sixth on an RBI single through the right side by center fielder Cade Harris, but had a chance to chip away even further before leaving two more in scoring position.

And MSU went right back to work with four more runs — including a towering three-run blast by first baseman Tanner Allen over the screen in left — to push the lead to 13-2.

OU right fielder Domenic DeRenzo — who entered the game in the sixth inning — responded with a two-run home run in the seventh, and Harris added another RBI with a solo shot to right in the eighth to cut the MSU lead to 13-5.

MSU reliever Cole Gordon (4-3) picked up the win for the Bulldogs.

OU had to use five relief pitchers in the game — Dylan Grove, Lane Ramsey, Jake Terry, Ledgend Smith, and Aaron Brooks — but because of the efforts of game two starter Nathan Wiles — who threw 8.2 innings of scoreless baseball on Saturday night — the Sooner bullpen is still relatively fresh.

Designated hitter Thomas Hughes continued to see the ball well at the plate with two more hits in four at bats. He’s hitting .615 so far in the regional.

Right fielder Steele Walker (oblique) and center fielder Kyler Murray — the Sooner’s two leading power hitters with a combined 23 of OU’s 45 home runs this season — did not play again.

Walker has missed the last seven games and Murray has missed the last six.

The Sooners will likely throw right-hander Kyle Tyler (6-2, 3.00) on Monday.

He threw 2.2 innings and allowed two runs on three hits in OU’s 20-10 win over MSU to start the regional.