Jaxon Willits' grand slam powers OU baseball over Oral Roberts, 7-6
OU baseball went from sleepwalking through a Tuesday night midweek contest to being powered by a Jaxon Willits go-ahead grand slam in the sixth inning en route a 7-6 come from behind win over Oral Roberts. It’s the Sooners largest come from behind win this season.
Cooper Combs’ grand slam gave Oral Roberts a 4-0 lead after one. OU trailed 6-1 heading to the bottom of the fourth. Dasan Harris and Camden Johnson RBI sac flies trimmed the deficit to three runs prior to Willits and his sixth inning bomb.
That’s now six wins in their last seven games for Skip Johnson’s club who head back on the Southeastern Conference road this weekend with a trip to Auburn.
WILLITS WASN’T THINKING GRANNY
Dasan Harris’ one out single started the Oklahoma rally in the sixth inning. Kyle Branch followed drawing a walk. Freshman Connor Larkin jumped ahead 3-0 before taking it full and drawing a walk.
All the while Jaxon Willits was waiting in the on-deck circle talking to the Man upstairs.
“I was sitting in the on-deck circle and I said a prayer,” said Willits on his sixth inning grand slam. “I’ve been trying to hit homers and I haven’t done it this year. Honestly, I was like ‘God I’m done. If you want me to hit a homer right here, we’re going to hit a homer’. And I just tried to stick with my approach and hit a line drive up the middle. The second I hit it, I’m like, man, He did it.
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“It was great.”
Deiten LaChance also went yard, opening the Sooners scoring with a second inning blast to right field. He’s hit four home runs in the last eight games.
MERCURIUS CLOSES IT OUT
On a night in which OU couldn’t find an answer on the mound through the first five innings, Johnson certainly found the magic touch in the second half.
An Ethan Fender double in the fifth would be ORU’s last hit of the night.
In the sixth inning, OU used three different pitchers to record an out. Mason Bixby started the inning with a fly out to left. Jaden Barfield came on for the second out. Reid Hensley, after all, closed the inning stranding a pair of runners and picked up the win.
Xander Mercurius worked the final three innings retiring nine batters in a row. Electric.
NEXT UP
No. 14 Oklahoma (28-12) heads to No. 11 Auburn for a three game series starting Friday night at Plainsman Park.
