Monday, February 23

Oklahoma Completes Series Sweep of Coppin State in Explosive Fashion


For the first time in Oklahoma baseball history, the Sooners scored double-digit runs in their first seven games of the season, breaking the record previosuly held since 1998.

No. 21-ranked OU completed the series sweep of Coppin State by defeating the visiting Eagles 11-0. Coppin State only managed four hits and one run throughout the weekend series.

Oklahoma (7-0) was aggressive, efficient and relentless in their opening series destruction of Coppin State (0-4). They even got some good cardio in as the Eagles walked 42 Sooners over the three games.

Camden Johnson got things going in the first with a double before stealing third base. With bases loaded, short stop Jaxon Willits hit a sacrifice fly to drive Johnson home for the first Sooner run in the first. Dayton Tockey followed Willits’ lead with another sacrifice fly to bring Trey Gambill home.

From there, Oklahoma’s bats remained active. Dasan Harris and Alec Blair brought OU runners home with RBIs to extend the Sooner lead to 5–0 before the Eagles ended the inning.

Throughout the weekend, OU was denied scoring in only two innings — the sixth inning on Saturday and the fifth and sixth innings on Sunday.

Left-hander Cord Rager (2-0) got the start for the day. He surrendered a one-out double (then only Coppin State’s sixth hit of the series) in the first inning but finished with seven strikeouts and only gave up three hits. Rager totaled only 75 pitches.

All three starting pitchers only gave up seven hits and one run, each with seven strikeouts — four walks combined. Their days were quickly over after only pitching in five innings.

With bases loaded in the second inning, Drew Dickerson singled into left field to drive Gambill home for the seventh run. The score forced Coppin State to change pitchers with OU sending 16 hitters to the plate to face starting pitcher Jake Cumming.

The Sooners were less flashy in the third and fourth innings but just as deadly in the third inning with RBIs from Willits, Dickerson and Deiten LaChance.

TCU transfer Mason Bixby made his second appearance of the season when he came in to relieve Rager. The 6-7 junior from San Antonio only managed 20 pitches before leaving the game with a hand injury and the bases loaded with two outs. Isaac Williams stepped up to end the inning and preserve the shutout.

Jaxon Willits, Oklahoma Sooner

Oklahoma infielder Jaxon Willits | BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Willits, Dickerson and Alec Blair led the team with two RBIs each. Surprisingly, only one Sooner had more than one hit in the game — LaChance with two. The team combined for nine hits.

Oklahoma’s streak of scoring double-digit runs in each of their first seven games broke the previous mark of six, set in 1998. While the Sooners were dominant in their win today, they were unable to break another record: scoring 20 or more runs in three consecutive games. They matched that mark yesterday; the previous occurrence came in 2005.

Skip Johnson’s crew will now look to host Big 12 foe and fringe-top 25 squad Arizona State for a midweek two-game series on Tuesday and Wednesday at Kimrey Family Stadium. Oklahoma will also host a weekend series against the Gonzaga Bulldogs, beginning this Friday at 4 p.m.





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