Junior pitcher Zach Neal was just waiting to pitch in front of a home crowd to have his first quality start of the year.

“It’s just being in a comfort zone,” Neal said following the No. 17 Sooners’ 12-1 victory over the Western Illinois Leathernecks. “We practice every day here; it’s our park.”

Neal had yet to record a win and had an ERA of 9.00 entering Friday’s game, and in his first win since transferring to OU from Howard College he threw 5 2/3 innings while allowing one run on five hits and striking out eight batters.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Neal said.

The Flower Mound High School product received support from his offense. It scored in five of the six innings Neal worked, including five runs through the first three innings.

OU did not rely on the long ball to manufacture runs with the Oklahoma gusts blowing out to left-center field, but rather bunting was its biggest weapon. The Sooners laid down three infield bunt singles to get runners on base and executed four sacrifice bunts to move them over.

The reason why bunting was as successful as it was Friday was because OU was facing a left-handed pitcher and because of how the Leathernecks’ defense was aligned, junior second baseman Danny Black said.

“The push bunt is always an option,” Black said. “In their case everyone was collapsing on the ball every time, so it made it kind of easy for us to get it in the right spot. They kept doing the same thing so we were exploiting them.

The game was close until the third inning when the Sooners (9-1) plated three runners on five hits to extend their lead to 5-0.

OU added two more runs in the fifth and sixth innings before the bullpen relieved Neal. Three Sooner pitchers combined to record 3 1/3 shutout innings, and the pitching staff combined for a season-high 15 strikeouts Friday.

“When the score was 6-1; again, with our bullpen being strong we felt like we had control,” head coach Sunny Golloway said.

Up by seven runs in the eighth inning, sophomore first baseman Cameron Seitzer launched a grand slam home run over the 411 sign in left-center field to increase the lead to 12-1. Seitzer’s four RBIs Friday are a career best.

The grand slam was the team’s third of the season, and its second in the ninth inning of a blowout victory.

Sophomore Garrett Buechele continued his tear at the plate with two hits and three RBIs in five plate appearances and three official at-bats. Buechele’s multi-hit game is his ninth of the season, and his batting average is now up to .526 and he has driven in 15 runs this season.

The Sooners continue the Sooner Classic against the South Florida Bulls at 3 p.m. Saturday at L. Dale Mitchell Park. OU rallied with two runs in the ninth inning to defeat the Bulls 5-4 Thursday.

Junior pitcher Bobby Shore is scheduled to make his first Saturday start of the season, with both of his first two starts and victories coming on Sundays. Shore (2-0) posts a 1.64 ERA in 11 innings and has 13 strike outs.