OKLAHOMA CITY – Freshman pitcher Jack Mayfield had trouble holding back an ear-to-ear smile when he addressed the media following his complete game shutout in the series finale against the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

When Mayfield opened his mouth to answer questions, his words travelled through a big grin.

“I was a little nervous, but I was more excited,” said Mayfield, who allowed five hits, struck out seven batters and was perfect through the first three innings in the Sooners’ 6-0 victory. “I loved the experience.”

The closest Oklahoma State (27-20, 8-13 Big 12) came to scoring a run was when it left a runner on third base in the eighth inning with two outs. Mayfield stranded the runner by striking out a batter on a full-count curveball.

“He threw a 3-2 breaking ball that froze [the batter], and I thought that was pretty special,” head coach Sunny Golloway said.

The start was the first of Mayfield’s career start. He had made 11 relief appearances game and had held opposing hitters to a .181 batting average coming into the game.

Golloway told Mayfield during Saturday’s breakfast he would be making the Sunday start if he was not used in relief in OU’s 4-3 loss Saturday night, but Golloway didn’t formally announce the start until the lineup card was filled out shortly before the finale.

The announcement was not made the night before because Golloway didn’t want the Cowboys to know and study up and look at tape on the right-handed freshman from Del Rio, Texas, Golloway said.

And the covert plan worked to perfection.

“I don’t think we did a great job competing with him,” Oklahoma State head coach Frank Anderson said.

But the complete game was threatened by a line drive that hit off Mayfield’s left thigh in the fourth inning. He looked hurt immediately after the play was over, but the pain was essentially a nonfactor, Mayfield said.

“It numbed my leg right when it hit [my leg], but it didn’t hurt it too bad,” he said. “After a while it started tingling, but I was lucky it didn’t bother me on the mound.”

As Mayfield fought through the pain and cruised through the Cowboys’ lineup, OU’s offense did what it had failed to do during the first two games of the series.

The Sooners got out to a 3-0 lead when they exploded in the third inning. Oklahoma State had gotten out to 4-0 leads in each of the first two games before getting on the scoreboard.

“We knew we had to come out and be aggressive at the dish, and we had a great start from Jack and we swung the bats well,” said sophomore third baseman Cameron Seitzer, who hit a two-run homer to right field during the third inning.

The Sooners (35-13, 12-10 Big 12) scored one run in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to build the six-run lead and secure their second straight Bedlam series.

Junior center fielder Ricky Eisenberg hit a solo home run in the sixth inning to score OU’s final run. The multi-home run game was the Sooners second of the series – OU hit five home runs in the series opener – and 21st multi-homer game of the season.

Mayfield’s start should earn him a spot in OU’s next conference series, which is against Kansas in Lawrence, Kan., starting May 21.

“I’m sure the Internet is going to be lit up with ‘why hasn’t Coach Golloway been starting Mayfield before now,’ and that’s a good question,” Golloway said. “I don’t really have the answer, but he needs to be in our rotation.”

The Sooners don’t have a midweek game this week, but return to action in a three-game set against Memphis at L. Dale Mitchell Park starting May 14 before playing Texas State at home in a make-up game. The home stand will be OU’s last one of the season.