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Baseball: Sooners succeed over weather-shortened spring break schedule
by   |  March 22, 2010  |  

The No. 13 baseball team was treated well by its Spring Break schedule until the snow storm hit Norman.

The Sooners (18-2) won five of its six games and had two games cancelled due to weather.

The only loss during that stretch came against No. 10 UCLA during last weekend’s Whataburger Classic in Corpus Christi, Texas. The Sooners fell to the Bruins 5-2. OU won the first two games of the tournament against Mississippi State and Texas A&M Corpus Christi by the scores of 16-5 and 11-2.

The loss snapped the Sooners’ winning streak at 10 games, but returned to L. Dale Mitchell Baseball Park for an intended five-game home stand looking to restart another winning streak.

OU played two midweek games against the winless Massachusetts Minutemen. The Minutemen entered Norman having played and lost four blowout games against the Oklahoma State Cowboys in Stillwater.

The first game of the two-game series with the Minutemen on Tuesday was a pitching duel between the Sooners’ bullpen and UMass senior pitcher Mike Gedman.

OU used four relief pitchers after senior pitcher J.R. Robinson pitched the first 4 1/3 innings, and Gedman threw a complete game, but the bullpen was more effective in the late innings.

The bullpen threw 4 2/3 shutout innings en route to a 4-2 victory. Senior pitcher Jason Chowning received the win and junior pitcher Ryan Duke collected his seventh save of the season.

The two teams squared off again Wednesday, and the Sooners left the field with another victory, this time by a score of 8-4. The game was close through the first six innings, but OU exploded for six runs in the seventh and eighth innings featuring a two-out, two-run home run by junior pitcher Casey Johnson that gave the home team a 5-4 lead in the seventh.

Having won two straight games, the Sooners were in good position to start off conference play on the right foot against the Baylor Bears. The Bears were supposed to play a three-game series starting Friday in Norman, but the two teams could only complete one game.

The Sooners scored all seven of their runs of a 7-6 victory against Baylor in the first three innings of game one of a double header Friday. The game featured two home runs by sophomores center fielder Chris Ellison and shortstop Caleb Bushyhead and more solid pitching out of the bullpen.

Senior pitchers Michael Rocha and Jeremy Erben threw the final seven innings Friday afternoon. Rocha allowed three runs in four innings and Erben extended his scoreless streak to eight appearances by not allowing a run in three innings of work.

Rocha earned his third victory of the season and Erben was credited with his first save this year.

The final two games of the series were cancelled because of weather, allowing the Sooners to win the series 1-0. The Bears had a chance to tie the series when they were up 5-0 in the third inning of the second game Friday, but the snow storm came in and did not allow the game and series to be completed.

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