No. 19 Oklahoma fell Sunday in its series finale against No. 14 Vanderbilt, 13-2. But the Sooners still took the weekend set from the Commodores and are likely to move up in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll on Monday.
Vanderbilt picked up runs in every inning Sunday except the fourth, chasing Oklahoma starter Malachi Witherspoon in the fifth. Witherspoon allowed six runs on six hits and a walk but struck out 11 Commodores. The two home runs he gave up and the two batters he hit hurt him the most.
Riley Nelson hit a solo shot in the top of the first, and Braden Holcomb followed with a two-run blast in the second to open a 3-0 lead for Vanderbilt after two. The Commodores picked up two more in the third on two RBI singles and one more in the fifth on an RBI double.
Oklahoma, meanwhile, was left in the dust. Dayton Tockey hit an RBI single in the fourth to pull a run back, but it was, at the time, only the second Sooners knock of the day. As a team, they finished with just five base hits against Vandy's 11. Jason Walk knocked in the other Oklahoma run in the eighth and final frame.
But OU took Game 1 and Game 2 of the series on Friday and Saturday by 9-4 and 14-0 scores to win its first Southeastern Conference series since March 23, when the Sooners took two of three from Mississippi State.
Oklahoma is 7-8 in SEC play at the halfway point of the league schedule. A one-off game against Oklahoma State is up Tuesday before the Sooners head to Columbia, Missouri, for a three-game set against Mizzou, which is winless in the SEC.
This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Vanderbilt baseball takes final game from Oklahoma
