Bedlam baseball heated up the Tulsa and Oklahoma City metros last weekend as the Oklahoma Sooners took on the in-state rival Oklahoma State Cowboys.

The rivalry, considered the best college baseball rivalry in the country, reached a new high last week in game 1 on Thursday night in Tulsa at Drillers Stadium.

Thursday night saw over five hours of Bedlam action as the Sooners and Cowboys went to 14 innings before finally deciding the contest. The game went into an extra inning after the two teams completed the ninth with a 5-5 tie. Both teams scored a run in the thirteenth inning, then the Cowboys got five in the 14th led by a grand slam from Cowboy Paul Powell, giving the Sooners a heartbreaking 11-7 loss in the first game of the series.

For OU, Jason Fransz hit his 13th home run of the year, and starter Mark Roberts continued to pitch well this season with 5.1 innings of work, giving up only 3 earned runs.

Fransz delivered again for the Sooners on Friday night in Bricktown. The Sooners left fielder was 2-4 in Friday night's game against the Cowboys and capped his night off with his 16th home run of the year, a two-run shot in the eighth inning that helped propel OU to a 5-2 victory in game 2.

"This was a very big win for us," OU head coach Larry Cochell said in a statement. "Especially after last night. What can you say about Jason Fransz? His home run was the biggest hit of the ballgame, obviously, and maybe the season."

Freshman starter David Purcey pitched 7 innings, giving up only one earned run and striking out seven.

Saturday's third game was the last game of the regular season for the two squads and would provide just as much drama as the first two match-ups of the series. The atmosphere was fantastic as fans in crimson and cream or orange and black split the Bricktown Ballpark in two. The crowd of 13,066 was a sell-out to watch the Sooners and Cowboys meet again before the start of this week's Big 12 tournament.

It started out rocky for the Sooners as starter Buddy Blair allowed three early runs as OSU took a 3-0 lead after two. Then senior reliever Evan Greusel came in and struck out a career-high 11 Cowboys in 6.2 innings of work, winning the fourth game of his career against OSU.

The Cowboys led by two runs going into the fifth, but the Sooners scored four runs on three hits in the bottom of the fifth capped by shortstop Denver Kitch's base hit that brought in the final two runs of the inning.

The Sooners would hit their last run in the sixth, to take an 8-5 lead, and the Cowboys would get their final run in the eighth when Rob Watson hit a solo home run.

The Sooners took Saturday's game 8-6, the win giving them the season's Bedlam Series victory and the Bedlam Bell for baseball for the 2002 campaign.

"Tonight's game said a lot about the maturity and character of our ball club," Cochell said. "We showed that we can come from behind and it feels great to win this series."

The Sooners go to Arlington this week for the Big 12 Tournament Wednesday-Saturday.

After taking 2 of 3 from the Cowboys, the Sooners finished 33-23 for the season and 15-12 and in fourth place in the Big 12.
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