GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Jimmy Crooks homered twice, and Oklahoma baseball blasted four home runs on its way to a 9-4 victory over No. 13 seed Florida in the NCAA Gainesville Regional Saturday evening at Condron Family Ballpark.
The Sooners (39-20) overcame a 2-0 deficit with a four-run third inning, taking the lead on back-to-back home runs, just as it did in the regional opener on Friday. Peyton Graham’s 18th homer of the season was a two-run blast and Blake Robertson followed with his fifth of the year to put OU in front. Tanner Tredaway later scored on a wild pitch to give the Sooners a 4-2 lead.
Kendall Pettis created his own run in the fourth inning to make it 5-2. He singled, stole second, was balked to third and scored on a wild pitch that did not get outside of the dirt area around home plate. Crooks made it 6-3 in the fifth inning with a solo homer, then extended the lead to 8-3 with another homer in the seventh inning. Both blasts cleared the seating in right field and increased Crooks’ season total to seven.
David Sandlin (8-3) struck out six batters over 6.0 frames and turned it over to Chazz Martinez and Trevin Michael to close out the game. Sandlin battled back to throw three scoreless frames after the Gators (40-23) hit two solo home runs in the second inning. Michael pitched the final 2.1 innings, allowing only one hit and striking out one batter.
Florida scored on solo home runs by Ty Evans and Jac Caglianone in the second inning, a sacrifice fly by Evans in the sixth and a solo home run by Mac Guscette in the seventh. Starter Brandon Neely (3-3) took the loss.
OU responded to the seventh-inning homer by adding another run in the eighth inning when Tredaway hit a two-out RBI single to bring home Pettis and reach the 9-4 final tally.
The Sooners advance to the regional final, where they will meet either Florida or Central Michigan at 6 p.m. CT Sunday. Oklahoma can advance to the Super Regional round with one win, while Florida or CMU must beat OU twice.
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