OU Baseball: Oklahoma Cruises Past Cal State Northridge for 10-0 Start

OU starter Malachi Witherspoon allowed one run and six hits over his five innings on the mound, good enough for the win and a 2-0 record on the year. 

Witherspoon’s best feature was his moxie. He worked around a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam in the top of the second inning thanks to a pair of strikeouts and a groundout to second baseman Kyle Branch. 

CSUN loaded the bases with one out in the fourth and got on the board thanks to Elijah Fairchild’s RBI single. Witherspoon escaped further damage by retiring Roberto Gonzalez and Colton Boardman, the first and third hitters in CSUN’s order.

The Matadors’ only other run came against OU reliever Jaden Barfield in the top of the eighth. They stranded 12 runners in falling to 2-6 on the season.

The Sooners had much more success delivering with their bats, scoring in six of their eight innings against CSUN starter Noah Rinehart and four relievers. 

Jaxon Willits followed Jason Walk’s leadoff single and stolen base with an RBI single to right field to shove OU ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the first.

Tockey’s triple off the base of the right-field wall led off the second. He scored on Dawson Willis’ perfectly placed bunt toward first base. 

Trey Gambill opened the bottom of the third with a line single to right field. He stole second – one of five OU steals on the afternoon – and came home on Tockey’s two-out single.

After CSUN got within 3-1 in the top of the fourth, OU designated hitter Easton Carmichael drove a two-out, two-run single up the middle in the bottom half to help retake control. 

As if there was any doubt, Tockey’s RBI single and Scott Mulder’s run-scoring groundout in the bottom of the fifth pushed OU ahead 7-1.

A two-out rally in the bottom of the seventh produced the Sooners’ final three runs. Tockey and Mulder singled to get it started. Willis and Walk followed with back-to-back doubles to right field.

OU shoots for a three-game weekend sweep of the Matadors, and an 11-0 start to the season, Sunday at 1 p.m.