OU baseball: Tanner Tredaway's 3-run homer lifts Sooners over Oral Roberts in 14-12 slugfest

With a three-run homer by Tanner Tredaway, the Sooners clinched a comeback 14-12 victory over Oral Roberts on Tuesday night. 

ORU made a statement in the top of the first inning with eight runs. OU found a way to limit the damage with Conor McKenna hitting a grand slam with two outs in the bottom of the first.

ORU’s Joshua Cox reacted with a lead-off homer in the top of the second inning. The Golden Eagles (12-16) put two more on the board, but the Sooners (14-14) continued to chip away at the large lead with four more runs.

Neither squad produced any runs in the third, but that shifted with a two-run home run for Brett Squires in the bottom of the fourth inning. OU then tied it up 10 a piece.

Similar to Cox, ORU’s Anthony Martinez responded with a lead-off homer to left field to snatch the lead again, 11-10. Neither team scored from then until the top of the seventh inning. For the third time, the Golden Eagles had a lead-off homer with Alec Jones’ drilling it past the fence. Their lead was strengthened to 12-10, but it was quickly snatched by the Sooners.

With two runners and two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Tredaway blasted a three-run home run to give OU its first lead of the night, 13-12. Then, a ball snuck past ORU’s catcher and the Sooners brought in another runner to go up 14-12.

A double-play ended the rally for the Sooners. From being down 8-0 in the middle of the first inning to taking their first lead in the seventh inning, the comeback has rightly given the Sooners energy going into a series against Kansas this weekend.

“I think the biggest thing is that we played through some adversity,” head coach Skip Johnson said. “I thought it was a signature win for our program.”

Oklahoma will be hosting Kansas this weekend, with the first game of the series starting at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, April 9.