Offense Powers OU Baseball To Series Victory Over BYU

Oklahoma took its second straight and fourth conference series of the season Friday in Provo with a 12-6 win over BYU. 

The Sooners (23-14, 13-4) sit alone at the top of the Big 12 standings and are a Saturday win away from four conference sweeps. 

OU's offense brought the power yet again, hitting three home runs and five doubles in Friday's game two victory. On the mound, starting RHP Kyson Witherspoon got the win, going five innings and striking out six while scattering seven hits and three runs with one walk. 

BYU (15-20, 6-14) went up early, scoring one on a solo home run in the bottom of the first. The Sooners quickly responded off the bat of redshirt senior Michael Snyder who hit a leadoff solo home run at the top of the second, his team-leading eighth of the season. 

At the bottom of the second, after BYU loaded the bases with no outs, Witherspoon worked out of the jam with a pop up, strikeout and ground out to leave them loaded. 

Following a quiet third inning, the Sooners exploded for seven runs on six hits in the fourth. Senior Anthony Mackenzie started the scoring with an RBI double to left center, followed by an RBI single from fellow senior Kendall Pettis and a bases loaded walk to junior Scott Mudler. Two batters later, freshman Jason Walk laced a two-run double to right before a two-run home run from sophomore Easton Carmichael finished the flurry. 

The Cougars got two runs back in the home half of the fourth on a triple to right field that just dropped just beyond the outstretched glove of Walk. 

In the sixth, BYU scratched one run across on a solo home run before Madron made an exceptional diving catch to end the inning. Madron then led off the seventh with his eight home run of the year, good for a tie of the team lead with Snyder. 

The Cougars pushed a pair across at the bottom of the seventh via wild pitch and an RBI groundout before the Sooners responded with three of their own at the top of the eighth. 

After a pair of singles from freshman Isaiah Lane and Walk, Madron doubled in Lane with his second two-bagger of the game. Carmichael followed suit, lifting a sac-fly to right to score Walk before Madron raced home on a wild pitch to make it 12-6, Sooners. 

Junior righty Ryan Lambert closed the game in the ninth by putting down the Cougars in order with one strikeout. 

Fellow relievers Carter Campbell (1.1 IP) and Dylan Crooks (1.2) did their part, each striking out one and surrendering just one hit while Campbell let across three runs and issued a pair of walks. 

At the plate, five Sooners recorded multi-hit games with Madron leading the pack, going 3-for-5 with a home run, two doubles and two RBIs. Carmichael plated three to pace OU in runs batted in. 

The Sooners offense continued a tear, scoring double-digit runs for the seventh time in the last 10 games and recording double-digit hits for the seventh time in the last nine. Going into the series, BYU had surrendered 10-plus runs just five times on the year. 

The teams meet for the series finale Saturday at 2 p.m. CT. The game can be seen via Big 12 NOW on ESPN+ and heard locally in Oklahoma on SportsTalk 1400 AM/99.3 FM or nationwide on The Varsity app.

Single game tickets and mini-plan options for home games at L. Dale Mitchell Park are available via SoonerSports.com/tickets. 

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