Pokes win, Sooners lose, and can we all try a little harder to win
Bedlam coaches Josh Holliday and Skip Johnson each made a pitching choice fit for a scrimmage, not a Bedlam game, or any game, even on a random Tuesday night
What did we learn Tuesday night, when Oklahoma met Oklahoma State at Tulsa’s ONEOK Field for a scheduled nine innings that became not quite eight once lightning struck near the ballpark?
Mid-week games?
They don’t matter.
Or, fine, let’s be equivocal: they’re not managed like they matter.
If they were, a couple of pitchers — one a Sooner, the other a Poke — would not have entered the game. Give me a minute and I’ll explain.
OSU stopped OU 7-3 and might not have if not for the weather.
Though the Cowboys led the whole game and were up 6-0 before the second inning was done, a bottom-of-the-eighth, nobody-out, three-run home run from Sooner shortstop Reggie Willits on what wound up the game’s final pitch gave OU hope.
Hard to score seven runs in two at-bats, but did we mention nobody was out?
The Sooners needed only four more with the same six outs still to give and, well, if the next reliever out of the Cowboy bullpen was anything like Parker Jennings, who was in the process of being pulled when the lightning arrived, OU might have had more than a chance.
It might have been the favorite.
