Sooners Take 10-Inning Thriller Over Top-10 Tennessee

Oklahoma baseball earned its first victory of the season in a 10-inning thriller over No. 5/8/9/11 Tennessee, 5-1, Saturday night at Globe Life Field.

After each team scored solo runs in the fourth inning, a defensive duel ensued with five straight scoreless innings before OU put up a four-spot at the top of the 10th. 

A one-out RBI double to left field from junior John Spikerman broke the tie, plating freshman Jaxon Willits. Sophomores Easton Carmichael and Rocco Garza-Gongora added insurance with RBI singles in the frame to bring the final to 5-1, Oklahoma. 

"I thought they played with will, they played hard," said head coach Skip Johnson. "We came into the weekend wanting to play with an edge and I thought we played with an edge. 

"They played team baseball, did things that helped each other. That's the power of teamwork."

The Sooner pitching staff of senior Brendan Girton, sophomore Kyson Witherspoon and junior Ryan Lambert held the top-10 Vols' offense in check, surrendering just one run on seven hits to go with a combined 15 strikeouts. 

Lambert (W, 1-0) took the win in relief, going the final 1.2 innings and allowing no runs and one hit with two K's. Girton was exceptional in his Sooner debut, going the first four innings and finishing with a line of 4.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 3 BB and 9 K. Witherspoon followed with 4.1 innings of solid relief, allowing no runs, three hits, three walks with four strikeouts. 

At the plate, Garza-Gongora (2-for-5, 3 RBI), Carmichael (3-for-5, 1 RBI) and Spikerman (2-for-5, 1 RBI) paced the Sooners. 

Oklahoma makes a quick turnaround to face Nebraska in the team's final matchup of the Shriners Children's College Showdown on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. CT. The game can be seen via subscription on FloBaseball and heard locally on SportsTalk 1400 AM/99.3 FM or nationwide on The Varsity app. 

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