OU/Sooner Sports Photo
NORMAN — No. 14 Oklahoma erased a five-run deficit to come back and beat Oral Roberts by a final of 7-6 Tuesday night at Kimrey Family Stadium in Norman.
Jaxon Willits was the hero on the night, hitting a go-ahead grand slam in the bottom of the sixth to cap the comeback. The Sooner bullpen finished the job, not allowing the Eagles (23-15) a hit after the fifth inning.
ORU jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning on a grand slam, the first given up by Sooner pitching in two seasons. OU (28-12) responded in the second with a solo shot off the bat of Deiten Lachance, his fourth home run in the last eight games.
The visitors would add single runs in the third and fourth to push the lead to five runs before OU would score single runs via sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourth and fifth to trim the lead to three.
To the sixth, after a single and pair of walks, Willits’ launched his first career grand slam on the first pitch he saw to give OU its first lead of the night.
The late-inning bullpen of Nate Smithburg (2.0 IP), Mason Bixby (0.1), Jaden Barfield (0.1), Reid Hensley (0.1) and Xander Mercurius shut out the Eagle offense the final five innings to cap OU’s largest comeback victory of the season.
Hensley (1-0) earned his first win of the season, while Mercurius collected the first save of his career, hurling three scoreless, hitless innings with two strikeouts.
Read MORE about the game and see Pitchers of Record, Stats, Highlights, and more.
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