By John Shinn
The Norman Transcript
Norman — Oklahoma handled the elements Friday. Now it’s waiting to see if the elements can do it a favor.
The Sooners topped Baylor 7-6 Friday afternoon in the first game of a doubleheader at L. Dale Mitchell Park. They were trailing the Bears 5-0 when the nightcap was postponed in the bottom of the third inning. The teams will try to resume the series at 1 p.m. Sunday.
But that depends on the weather, which is expected to include snow today and Sunday.
“When you’re 18-2, it’s tough to lose a game when you only play five innings,” OU coach Sunny Golloway said.
The Sooners are 18-2 because it rallied from a three-run deficit and received another stellar performance for their bullpen.
Starting pitching wasn’t OU’s forte in either game. Starter Zach Neal lasted only two innings in the opener and gave up three runs on four hits.
Runs weren’t exactly hard to come by Friday afternoon. The wind was howling straight out to left-center field. The Sooners and Bears (11-7) combined for four home runs in the opener and peppered the left-field field with line drives that just kept carrying.
Baylor got several of those in the first two innings off Neal to claim a 3-0 lead heading into the bottom of second.
OU connected for the first back-to-back homers of the season in the bottom of the second as Chris Ellison drove a two-out homer over the fence in left field with Danny Black on-base and Caleb Bushyhead followed with a solo shot to right.
“Everybody believed the next guy could go up there and do his job by getting on base,” Ellison said. “Luckily, the wind was blowing out and you could get in that jet stream out there.”
The Sooners pumped their lead to 7-3 on a pair of two-out RBI doubles from Casey Johnson and Bryan Goth in the third inning.
But, offensively, OU stopped right there.
Luckily, the Sooners had the relief pitching to handle it.
Michael Rocha (3-0) gave up three runs on four hits, but still managed to hand the ball to Jeremy Erben with a one-run lead in the in the seventh inning.
Rocha has been the Sooners’ MVP through the first month of the season. He showed why Friday, holding the Bears scoreless over the final three innings to get his first save of the season.
“The important thing for me has always been to try to keep the lead for our guys, so far it’s been working out good,” Erben said. “I have a really good defense behind me and my job is to throw strikes and get outs.
Erben’s performance was critical because the coaching had already made the decision it wasn’t going to throw closer Ryan Duke more than once Friday.
Obviously, the staff was hoping that would have meant a save opportunity in the second game. If it comes, it will happen Sunday afternoon.
If the series does resume, it will be the resumption of the second game. The Sooners had no one out and a runner at first base when the rain rolled in. The game must complete five innings for it to be official.
With heavy snow in the forecast today and temperatures near freezing predicted for Sunday, getting anything in could be a stretch.
“We really do want to play,” Golloway said, “but when you’re down, you want to have a full game to recover. We’re going to need every at-bat to recover. I’m hoping if we could to resume on Sunday, we play the full nine.”
That will be up to Mother Nature.
John Shinn 366-3536 jshinn@normantranscript.com
