Oklahoma baseball beats Army, stays in regional

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Braxton Douthit pitched a complete game, Bryce Madron drove in four runs and John Spikerman was an offensive and defensive catalyst in leading Oklahoma to a 10-1 win over Army in the NCAA Charlottesville Regional Saturday afternoon at Disharoon Park.

Douthit (5-6) struck out seven batters while working around four hits and four walks in his first complete game of the season. Wallace Clark and Easton Carmichael both homered for the Sooners (32-27).

“I thought Braxton set the tone early,” Oklahoma head coach Skip Johnson said. “Scoring early in the first inning settled him down, got him in a rhythm and he kept them off balance. Our outfield defense played extremely well. Us separating the game in the fifth inning really helped him settle down and go pitch-to-pitch.”

In the span of two batters in the sixth inning, Spikerman ran forward to catch a pop up behind the second base bag, then ran back to catch a fly ball in front of the warning track in straightaway center field. In the ninth inning, he raced to right center field and caught a ball that, off the bat, seemed destined to land in the alley. He made all three catches without leaving his feet.

Offensively, the sophomore center fielder went 2 for 3 with a walk, three steals and three runs. He scored OU’s first two runs of the game. In the first inning, he singled, advanced to second on a groundout, stole third and crossed the plate on a double by Madron. In the third, Spikerman bunted for a single, stole second, went to third on a groundout and scored on a Madron sacrifice fly.

Madron, who was 2 for 3 in the game, brought home two more runs with a triple in Oklahoma’s five-run fifth inning.

That fifth inning began with a single by Clark and walks to Rocco Garza-Gongora and Spikerman. Pettis then bounded a two-run single to left field, Madron tripled and Anthony Mackenzie singled in another run to make the score 7-0.

OU will play either Virginia or East Carolina in an elimination game at 11 a.m. CT Sunday. The winner of that contest will advance to the regional finals against the winner of Saturday night’s Virginia-ECU game. OU lost a 14-5 decision to East Carolina in the first round Friday.