Upcoming Event: Baseball versus Texas Tech on February 13, 2026 at 11 a.m.
11 a.m.
Baseball
vs Texas Tech
University of Oklahoma Athletics
Saturday, April 23
Norman
2:00 PM
University of Oklahoma
4
vs
1
Nebraska
Sooners Claim Series Victory with 4-1 Win
April 23, 2011 | Baseball
April 23, 2011
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NORMAN, Okla. -- Burch Smith and the No. 11 Sooners defeated Nebraska by a score of 4-1 Saturday afternoon at L. Dale Mitchell Park to win game two and wrap up the Big 12 series victory.
Smith tied a career-high with 7 1/3 innings while striking out nine batters to improve to 7-2 on the season and the Sooner offense pounded Nebraska for 14 base hits.
The victory takes OU's overall record to 29-11 and 9-7 in Big 12 play while the Huskers fell to 25-16 and 5-9. It marks the second straight season that OU has won the first two games of the series against the Huskers.
Casey Johnson paced the offense, going 3-for-4 at the plate with one run and one RBI. Garrett Buechele and Cale Ellis also had three hits on the afternoon while Erik Ross and Cameron Seitzer posted two base knocks.
“We spread them out. We bunted a couple guys up and got some key hits,” said Johnson. “It was enough today.”
Nebraska starter Jon Keller gave up 10 of the hits and two of the runs, while falling to 2-4 on the season.
“We've done the same thing the last couple days (offensively),” said OU Head Coach Sunny Golloway. “We've bunted guys into scoring position and allowed the next hitter to get him in. When the wind is blowing in, it's a concern because we do have some power in our lineup. The ball wasn't going to travel today. Our guys did a good job of not trying to fight it. We went the other way with it and that's what a good baseball player — a good hitter — is going to do. You have to hit what they're willing to give you at the time.”
OU led throughout the game and struck first in the bottom of the second Ellis' RBI single. In the third inning, Johnson's single to center field extended the Sooner lead to 2-0.
Nebraska broke up Smith's no-hit bid in the sixth inning on Zach Peters' infield single hit deep in the hole to short, and he later scored on Kash Kalkowski's RBI double down the left-field line.
“I try not to pay attention to that stuff,” said Smith on the potential no-hitter. “I did look up in the fourth and was like oh, I haven't given up a hit. I just try to do the same thing. Coaches have really stressed that in a tight game with runners in scoring position to really pound your spots and try to get the ground ball to get out of the inning.”
That was all Smith would allow as he was relieved in the eighth for Dillon Overton, who recorded two quick outs before Ryan Duke came into the ninth to record his fifth save of the year. In addition to posting the 33rd save of his career, Duke made his 83rd career appearance, tying him for second place all-time at Oklahoma with Evan Greusel (1999-2002).
OU received some extra insurance in the eighth inning, when Caleb Bushyhead made it 3-1 on a RBI groundout and Buechele extended the lead to three runs on a RBI single through the right side. TheRBI put Buechele in sole possession of 10th place at OU with 155 RBIs in his career.
Smith, Overton and Duke held Nebraska to a season-low three hits, tied with offensive output on display at UCLA on March 4 earlier this season.
The Sooners and Huskers play in the final game of the series at 1 p.m. on Sunday at L. Dale Mitchell Park. The game can be heard on the Sooner Sports Network, KREF 1400 AM, and can also be seen nationally on Fox College Sports (DirecTV Ch. 617).
“The key tomorrow is to come out and have a tremendous amount of energy and almost play like you've lost the first two games,” added Golloway. “I think that comes in waves also. We've had opportunities in ball games where could have stepped on the gas and moved away, but didn't. We did last night and we did it today in the eighth inning.”
Johnson and Carmichael Postgame vs North Carolina
Monday, June 02
BB Highlights: OU 9, UNC 5
Monday, June 02
Johnson, Dickerson, Willits Postgame vs North Carolina
Sunday, June 01
BB Highlights: OU 17, Nebraska 1
Sunday, June 01
