The Sooners took down TCU, 7-6, to win their first game since March 29 behind their highest scoring output since the series finale against Kansas on March 24.
Brylie Ware’s walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth — just half an inning after the Horned Frogs tied the game on a solo home run — was the final blow in a game where both teams traded offensive punches throughout the middle innings.
Here are three players who led the Sooners to victory:
Brylie Ware
When senior infielder Brylie Ware stepped to the plate with two runners on in the bottom of the ninth, it was deja vu for the senior third baseman. Just three days earlier against Oral Roberts, Ware had an opportunity to potentially tie or win the game in the bottom of the 11th but swung and missed at a high fastball to strand runners on second and third and finalize a 4-2 loss for Oklahoma.
On Friday night, the story ended differently.
After receiving the green light to swing from third base coach Clay Van Hook — when a bunt would have been a reasonable call in that situation — Ware glanced over at his team’s dugout.
“I saw all of our players up on the fence going ‘Let’s go Brylie, Let’s go Brylie, Let’s go Brylie’ and that gave me the confidence," Ware said.
Just a pitch later, Ware roped an 0-2 breaking ball into the left-center field gap to score freshman Diego Muniz and win the game for Oklahoma. The same dugout that cheered on their senior third baseman just seconds earlier erupted onto the infield and doused the hero of the night in water and gatorade.
“He’s our guy,” Muniz said of Ware. “We talk about it in the locker room, we want him up there a hundred times out of a hundred times. He’s our senior, we look up to him, he’s our leader. He’s like every other guy though. He stayed in the moment, stayed within himself and things work out when you do it that way.”
The walk-off single in the ninth was not the only signature play of the night from Ware. Just an inning earlier, the third baseman speared a ringing line drive to strand a pair of TCU runners when a base hit would have easily erased the one run lead.
“When you’re little, you dream of being in that type of situation, making the play,” Ware said.
Diego Muniz
Muniz had a successful day under his belt when he stepped to the dish to lead off the bottom of the ninth. Having already reached base in three of his first four plate appearances with two hits, a run scored and an RBI, Muniz had every reason to want to be the hero.
But the freshman knew what his job was in that situation.
“My job was to get on tonight and we stay within myself," Muniz said.
Muniz worked a six-pitch walk to lead off the inning and would go on to score the winning run just two batters later.
“Diego’s at-bat in the bottom of the ninth was a junior at-bat,” head coach Skip Johnson said. “He didn’t swing at the ball down 2-1. It was down, clearly down and most guys that are freshman are hacking… He understands the approach, understands that his job is to get on first base and it was really big.”
The freshman utility player, who has established himself as a potential everyday starter in a corner outfield position, made one of the best defensive plays of the season for the Sooners in the top of the fourth. As a fly ball carried out near the wall in left field, Muniz ranged back and plucked it out of the air before a hard chest-bump with the padded wall caused him to fall on his back and lose his hat.
“I think the adrenaline helped a lot,” Muniz said of the collision. “It was a big game for us against a good opponent and when I’m out there I’m going to go 100%. I don’t care what’s in front of me, I’ll do whatever it takes to make an out.”
After the Horned Frogs scored three runs with two outs to end their half of the fourth, Muniz dropped a two-bagger over the center-fielder’s head to score the fifth Oklahoma run of the game and extend the lead to two runs.
Brandon Zaragoza
In the midst of the team’s swoon over the last week and a half, Johnson made a slight change to his batting order for the series opener against TCU. He moved junior Brandon Zaragoza — who had batted in the No. 2 spot in all 30 games this season — down to No. 7 and moved fellow junior Conor McKenna up to the second spot.
“We needed to try and take some pressure off of (Zaragoza),” Johnson said. “Coach Overcash and Coach Van Hook have been really working on his swing to try and get him back. We brought up some video from last year and they’ve been doing it for two weeks… Really excited for him because he’s a good player.”
On Friday night, Zaragoza led the team with three hits and knocked in a pair of runs, both of which coming against TCU starter Nick Lodolo, who entered the game ranking second in the Big 12 in ERA (1.12) and first in walks plus hits per inning pitched (.83).
Improving to 5-2 in conference play and 23-8 on the season, the Sooners are expected to start junior Nathan Wiles (5-1, 3.27 ERA) on Saturday and sophomore Levi Prater (5-2, 1.59 ERA) on Sunday to finish off the series against TCU. In other news, former OU baseball and football player Kyler Murray is set to throw out the first pitch minutes before game time on Saturday afternoon.
“It means everything to win game one],” Ware said after his teammates dumped a bucket of gatorade on him in celebration. “Especially when we have Wiles and we have Levi, but we just have to take it one pitch at a time. We’re going to go enjoy this one and when tomorrow gets here we’ll be ready for tomorrow.”
