OU Baseball: Oklahoma Mashes Lehigh in Season Opener

Christiansen got the scoring going in the bottom of the second when Dawson Willis’ groundout brought him home from third. Tockey’s solo home run made it 2-0, and center fielder Jason Walk’s single up the middle scored junior college transfer and DH Trey Gambill for a 3-0 lead.

OU extended that by batting around in the fifth when shortstop Jaxon Willits walked, took third on catcher Easton Carmichael’s double to left-center and came home on Christiansen’s sacrifice fly. 

Carmichael came home when Willis, a Division II transfer and third baseman, sac bunted back to the mound and was safe on an error that allowed Carmichael to score for a 5-0 lead. 

After Tockey’s single and steal, Gambill brought them home with a double down the right field line to make it 7-0.

That’s when Branch recorded his first college hit, a line drive under the glove in center field that rolled all the way to the wall and plated Gambill for a 9-0 lead.

That was more than enough support for Witherspoon, the hard-throwing junior right-hander who opened with a groundout and then fanned six consecutive Lehigh batters. He added two more strikeouts in the fourth and another in the fifth and had a no-hitter going before running into a little trouble in the sixth.

Ryan Davis opened the sixth inning from the 9-hole with a single up the middle, and leadoff Jake Whitlinger bounced back to Witherspoon for what looked like an easy double play. But Branch dropped Witherspoon’s throw at second base and instead of two out with nobody on, the Mountain Hawks had runners on first and second with nobody out. 

That would be all for Witherspoon, a preseason second-team All-SEC selection who last year went 8-3 with a 3.71 ERA. Witherspoon went 5-plus innings, gave up just two hits, struck out nine with two walks and finished the day with 90 total pitches.

Against OU left-hander James Hitt, Dom Patrizi then delivered an RBI single to center that cut it to 9-1, and Ryan Cochran followed with an RBI double that made it 9-2. Trystan Crawford’s groundout to first scored Patrizi to cut OU’s lead to 9-3.

Oklahoma got a run back in the seventh when Willits led off with a home run to center field.

Hitt went two innings in relief and gave up two hits and a walk with three strikeouts. Freshman right-hander Michael Catalano relieved Hitt and struck out the side on 13 pitches.

Willits walked to lead off the eighth, then stole second and took third on a throwing error. Carmichael’s sac fly to right field scored Willits for his third run of the afternoon and put the Sooners up 11-3.

Christiansen’s single up the middle was his third hit of the opener.

Catalano added a strikeout in a scoreless ninth, his fourth and the team's 16th.