TULSA, Okla. — The No. 14 baseball team escaped OneOK Field with a 7-6 victory that was dominated by the long ball and timely pitching on OU’s behalf.

The Sooners (34-12, 11-9 Big 12), who’s fan base was out numbered, trailed after four innings. Junior pitcher Zach Neal gave up one run in each of the first four innings to put OU in an early 4-0 hole.

Three of those four runs were scored on two-out singles with the other run coming on a home run by Cowboys junior first baseman Dean Green on the first pitch of the second inning.

But the four-run deficit was not anything the Sooners have not been used to. They are 19-9 in games where their opponents score first, and most recently they trailed 5-0 after two innings Tuesday against Arkansas-Little Rock at home.

OneOK Field was playing in favor of the hitters with the wind blowing out to center and right field, and OU, who led the Big 12 in home runs with 65 coming into Friday’s game, mounted its comeback with a solo blast by freshman left fielder Max White.

With signs of life at the plate after the fourth inning, Neal (7-1, 3.97 ERA) settled down and pitched his first scoreless inning of the night during the fifth, and his teammates responded for him.

Sophomore outfielders Cody Reine and Chris Ellison hit back-to-back solo home runs with one out in the fifth to narrow the Cowboys’ lead to 4-3, and sophomore first baseman Cameron Seitzer launched a two-run shot, his 11th of the year, to center field to take a 5-4 lead that the team would not relinquish.

There wasn’t any fear the bats were going to be silenced forever, and Neal just needed some support to feel completely comfortable on the mound, he said.

“Once our offense started to respond – which I knew they would, they have all year – it was really reassuring,” Neal said. “That’s really all it took.”

With the one-run lead, Neal only allowed two Oklahoma State batters to reach base before he was pulled in the seventh inning. Neal ended his first Bedlam game by going 6 2/3 innings and allowed four runs (three earned) on nine hits while striking out five batters.

“He pitched extremely mature; he pitched like a veteran today,” Golloway said. “A lot of guys their first time in Bedlam giving up those singles – I think – panic, fall apart [and] try to do too much. He didn’t do that.”

Sophomore third baseman Garrett Buechele provided some insurance runs in the seventh inning with a two-run homer, his 11th of the year. The home run was OU’s fifth of the evening.

“The fact that we can the ball out of the yard is good for our ballclub late in games when we need runs,” Buechele said. “But we’re not a team that depends on the long ball by any means.”

But the 7-4 lead was not completely safe. Senior pitcher Jeremy Erben gave up a two-run, two-out home run to junior Luis Uribe, who came to the plate as a pinch hitter, in the eighth inning to swing momentum back in the Cowboys’ favor and cutting the lead to 7-6.

Junior pitcher Ryan Duke, who has not blown a save opportunity this season, was called upon to close the game in the ninth inning, and he faced four batters to do so and secure the victory. The save was his first since April 9 against Missouri.

“It’s nice that we were able to put him in a position, because it’s nothing that he hasn’t done right – he’s been lights out for us – but saves come,” Golloway said.

Duke earned his 11th save of the season and increased his career total to 27. He is one save behind former OU pitcher Jeff Bajenaru’s career record of 28 saves set between 1999 and 2000.

“We understand where he is on the career list,” Golloway said. “I know his teammates are pulling for him, and we want to put him in that position.

The win helped keep the Sooners in the hunt for second place in the Big 12 standings, but they didn’t get any help from the conference-leading Texas Longhorns. Texas lost 2-1 against Kansas State, whom OU beat twice last weekend, to end its 21-game winning streak.

The Sooners remain in fourth place behind the Wildcats and Texas Tech by percentage points.

The Bedlam Series will continue at 7:05 p.m. Saturday at Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City, and junior pitcher Bobby Shore (6-3, 4.03 ERA) is scheduled to start.

“It feels good for us; it gives us the advantage coming back home to Oklahoma City where we have more [of a] home fan base,” Buechele said.