Frisco Classic - Oklahoma vs Mississippi State - Game Story

[elitedawgs]

In the third game of the Frisco College Baseball Classic, Oklahoma defeated Mississippi State 15-9 in a game featuring 24 runs on 28 hits. Unfortunately for the Diamond Dawgs, the Sooners had 18 of those hits. More impressive was that with two outs, OU hit a red hot .500 compared to .250 for State. The Bulldogs saw significant improvement in their offense with 10 hits today, after only three last night against Ohio State.

Freshman Oklahoma designated hitter Rocco Garza-Gongora entered the game today batting .143 with limited appearances at the plate. By the third inning, Oklahoma assistant coach Reggie Willis saw something in Bulldog pitching and thought Garza-Gongora would be a better matchup at the plate. In the thirfd the Sooners pinch hit Garza-Gongora for DH Caden Powell. Coach Willis knows his players well, Garza-Gongora responded by going 3-4 with a three run shot, a triple and a single. Not many players come off the bench and nearly hit for the cycle. By the end of the game, Garza-Gongora raised his batting average to .316 - not a bad day for a freshman.

The bottom third of State's lineup delivered half of the Bulldog?s 10 hits. Kellum Clark and Ross Highfill each had two hits, while Lane Forsythe collected another. State stranded only 10 runners, an improvement from the 16 left on base against the Buckeyes. The big hit was not as elusive for the Dawgs against the Sooners as Luke Hancock laced a double in the left field in the 4th to score two, giving State its only lead of the game at 4-3. The Sooners immediately responded in the 5th by plating five runs to take an 8-4 lead they would not relinquish. Postgame, Bulldog head coach Chris Lemonis said start Graham Yntema had a really good start last weekend, however he just did not have hist best stuff today. Some of that can be attributed to a Sooner team that has been hitting the ball very well this weekend, scoring 9 against Cal in win on Friday.

OU really did their damage scoring six with two outs. Lemonis noted the team "has to do a better job on the bump", an opportunity State has on Sunday at 11 against California.