After nine innings of baseball at L. Dale Mitchell Park on Thursday, 34 runs were scored.
33 Oklahoma fans remained in the stands.
One person was left on the berm.
Conner Bond is one of the faithful, and since an advertisement at an OU basketball game convinced him to become a season ticket holder, he has been at almost every game this season. He can be spotted several rows below Oklahoma’s press box, yelling for the Sooners.
Thursday’s matchup was not any different, and although Stanford dominated game one of the series from start to finish, Bond did not care. He decided to stay for everything in between.
“I got five innings in, and I was like, why not,” Bond told OU Daily. “I’m a big fan, so I will support them either way.”
Just as the rain stopped pouring in Norman on Thursday night, the runs started to flood in for No. 7 Stanford, and a few Sooner spectators set out to endure a four-hour long offensive showcase from one of the top ten teams in the nation.
The Cardinals (17-5) took a quick 11-0 lead after an inning and a half of baseball, and the team continued to plow over OU (13-13) in similar fashion — scoring at least one run in every inning except the seventh.
As the contest progressed, attendance at the park rapidly decreased. Beyond a group of Stanford parents in the upper levels, all seats were relatively empty; however, a handful of the Sooner faithful stayed, scattered throughout the stands.
The Cardinals had already notched an 18-7 lead in the fifth, and coach Skip Johnson had turned to his bullpen five times.
Sophomore pitcher Gray Thomas during the game against Stanford on March 30.
Those in crimson and cream started piling out of the stadium, but it was Bond’s friend and fellow season ticket holder, Grant McAlister, who was just deciding to show up.
“I got off work and I asked, 'what’s the score,'” McAlister told OU Daily. “I asked, ‘is it over’ and (Bond) goes, ‘it's the top of the eighth.’ I said, 'I'll be there.'”
Without a single person left behind home plate, one of the stadium’s janitors had already started sweeping and carrying out his end-of-game duties a few innings early, but McAlister joined his friend in the stands anyways.
He arrived just in time to see Stanford score three more runs in their last two at-bats, and also watch Johnson send his ninth and final pitcher of the game to the mound.
With the 23-11 final, Stanford handed OU their sixth consecutive loss, but fans like Clint Lunday acknowledge that his dedication to the team does not waiver, win or lose.
“I’ll always support my Sooners,” Lunday told OU Daily. “Nothing will ever change.”
Lunday watched as the Cardinals finished the night with 19 hits and five home runs, and although the Sooners grabbed 12 hits and three home runs of their own, they could not hinder their opponent’s offensive prowess.
As the final pitch was being thrown, a lone silhouette could still be seen on the edge of the berm. Those left at L. Dale Mitchell Park posed their guesses as to why the man decided to stay put through all nine innings.
His answer was simple.
“I don’t know,” Carter Loeffelholz told OU Daily. “I guess a bad day of baseball is still pretty fun.”
This story was edited by Austin Curtright and Colton Sulley. Ansley Chambers copy edited this story.
