OU baseball: Sooners even series with 6-2 win over Samford

​After dropping the first game of the series to Samford on Thursday night, the OU baseball team evened the series at one apiece with a 6-2 win Friday despite being outhit by the Bulldogs.

The Sooners’ offense bounced back from a poor performance Thursday — leaving 12 runners stranded and going 5-for-20 with runners on base — by putting forth one of their most efficient outings of the season.

For the second game in a row, Samford struck first in the inning’s first frame. Samford’s senior first baseman Saxon Butler hit a two-run shot to leftfield to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead in the top of the first.

But sophomore pitcher Jonathan Gray tightened up the screws after a rough first inning — shutting out Samford for the remainder of the game.

Gray threw seven solid innings, allowing eight hits and striking out seven on his way to picking up his seventh win of the season — a statistic in which he ranks second on the team.

OU got on the board in the bottom of the third when junior third baseman Garrett Carey crossed the plate on a senior Cody Reine RBI.

The Sooners struck again in the fourth on a two-run single from Carey. In the fifth, junior Max White doubled to leftfield and then scored on a wild pitch.

Junior Steven Okert, who won Big 12 Newcomer of the Week accolades in last weekend’s sweep of No. 4 Baylor, pitched two scoreless innings in relief and recorded his fourth save of the year.

Saturday’s finale is penciled in for a 2 p.m. first pitch, although the Sooners have yet to announce a starter.

Dillon Phillips

Dillon is a former staff member of The Oklahoma Daily who worked as Sports Reporter, Assistant Sports Editor and Sports Editor.