The baseball team played four road games last week, dropping a 15-3 game against the University of Georgia on Tuesday, March 13, before taking only one of three weekend games at Oklahoma.
Against UGA, Jake Franklin led the Owls with three hits, establishing an early 3-0 lead in the second inning. Garrett Hodges and Tyler Simon each had two hits and one RBI.
An RBI double from Hodges, a sacrifice fly from Terrence Norman and an RBI single from Simon gave KSU the advantage. The Bulldogs quickly responded and scored seven runs in the next two innings to take a 14-3 lead. They went on to score one more run and blanked the Owls for the rest of the game to get the victory.
Traveling to Norman, Oklahoma, the Owls began their series against the Sooners Friday night.
Grant Williams led the Owls with two hits, but the star of the day was starting pitcher AJ Moore. He pitched five innings, had a career-high nine strikeouts and allowed just four hits without giving up a run. He was taken out after five innings, and the relief effort could not continue the shutout.
The game was scoreless until the sixth inning when Moore was taken out, and the Sooners scored from two walks. The Owls countered in the next inning as Norman scored on a wild pitch to make the game 2-1. The Sooners added a third run in the bottom of the seventh to give the game a final score of 3-1.
The second game mirrored the first one as a pitcher’s duel, and no runs were scored until the seventh inning.
Taylor Allum was the Owls’ most successful hitter with one hit and one RBI while Brooks Buckler pitched six-and-one-third innings and allowed eight hits, two runs and two strikeouts.
The scoreless tie was broken when Allum put the Owls on top 1-0, but the bottom half of the seventh inning saw Oklahoma score four runs on four hits, giving the game a 4-1 final score.
The Owls closed out their series in Norman on Sunday afternoon in a game that had very different features than the previous two, showcasing an Owls slugfest as they came out on top 9-4.
Jake Rothwell was the starting pitcher for the Owls and had a successful outing, pitching six innings, allowing eight hits, allowing one run and recording six strikeouts.
By the fourth inning, the Owls were out to an 8-0 lead courtesy of home runs by Helms, Simon and LaDonis Bryant, while AJ Willoughby hit a two-run double. After Norman hit an RBI single to increase the lead to 9-0, the Sooners would score one run in each of the last four innings to make the final score 9-4.
Next up, the Owls will be back home to take on Jacksonville State at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 21.
