Sooners Fall To Fourth-Ranked A&M

News9.com

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – What started out as a pitching duel ended in disappointment for the 22nd-ranked Sooners on Friday in a 5-2 loss to the Aggies.

OU went through four scoreless innings with No. 4 Texas A&M before finally breaking the trend in the fifth and scoring its only two runs.

The Aggies responded in the bottom of the fifth with a run of their own on a base hit from Blake Allemand, breaking up the strong showing from pitcher Dillon Overton.

Overton still had an excellent day on the mound brewing before the seventh inning, when A&M took over.

They pulled two runs off Overton in the seventh and two more in the eighth before Overton was pulled.

He finished the day giving up nine hits and all five runs in 7.1 innings despite the strong start.

OU coach Sunny Golloway said his batters lost the battle with the Texas A&M pitching staff on Friday.

"They are very good at home, we understand that," Golloway said. "Their pitching keeps them in games. Our pitching has kept us in games but our offense just hasn't got it going."

Aggies starter Ross Stripling threw the complete game with no walks, eight strikeouts and the only two Sooner runs.

A&M took the first game against the Sooners as well, leaving OU with three losses in their past four games. The Sooners are 18-13 overall and 4-7 in conference play.

"We have to come out and fight hard every day," Golloway said. "Baseball is what it is. You have to take the good with the bad. We played pretty good for six (innings) and we didn't play so good in the seventh and eighth and it cost us."

The Sooners and Aggies will finish out the three-game series on Sunday at 3:30 p.m.