Score by Innings R H E
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Texas Longhorns..... 002 211 210 - 9 15 1
Oklahoma Sooners.... 100 300 100 - 5 11 4
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The year was 1998.
Nagano, Japan hosted the Olympic Games.
France won the World Cup.
The first section of the International Space Station was launched.
Ricky Williams won the Heisman in Mack Brown's first season in Austin.
And Oklahoma's baseball team swept Texas in Norman.
The Horns and Sooners have played 14 series since then and Texas has won every one.
The streak was guaranteed to reach 14 on Saturday as Texas struck early and responded to every Oklahoma challenge for a 9-5 victory. Regardless of today's result, the series victory over OU was desperately needed. The Horns have a real chance to turn their season around. Having already played the 2nd, 5th and 14th ranked teams by Boyd's World's ISR, Texas won't play another team in the top 20 the rest of the season. Texas A&M (23), Baylor (26) and Cal (30) are the only Texas opponents in the top 50 of the ISR, and of Texas' remaining opponents only Baylor has played anything resembling a Texas' tough schedule (Horns have played the #9 SoS).
A day after recording a season-high 17 hits on Friday, Texas managed 15 on Saturday led by 2-3-4 hitters Mark Payton, Erich Weiss and Jonathan Walsh who combined to go 9-15 with five runs and a pair of triples. With 43 hits in their last three games, the Texas team batting average has risen from .212 to an almost respectable .245.
Freshman Ricky Jacquez started on Saturday but lacked any real semblance of command with his fastball. Jacquez managed to go 3+ innings, giving up three runs on three hits while walking four and hitting two more Sooners with only one strikeout. We're all for making Sooners feel pain, but in this instance it was counterproductive. Jacquez loaded the bases with nobody out in each of the first two innings but Sooner over-aggressiveness ended the bottom of the 1st and a liner back to Jacquez ended the 2nd with OU leading just 1-0.
Austin Dicharry came in when Jacquez struggled in the 4th inning. Dicharry gave up two hits that tied the game, but he also got three critical outs that bridged Jacquez less than ideal start with Hoby Milner and Corey Knebel's excellent long relief work. Milner got the win by going three innings while giving up five hits but only one earned run. Knebel gave up one hit in the final two innings while throwing only 24 pitches.
A look at what awaits on Sunday after the jump.
With a huge series win against one of two ranked Big 12 teams in the bag, Texas looks for a big sweep. Milner threw 56 pitches on Saturday, just a day after throwing 40+ on Friday. Knebel threw nearly three innings on Friday and two quick innings on Saturday, but he's relatively fresh and may be able to throw an inning on Sunday. Freshman Parker French pitched on Friday and will start on Sunday. Look for Sunday to be freshman heavy with Dillon Peters and John Curtiss as primary candidates to throw once French falters.Anyhow, join us for the open thread here. The game starts a 1 PM CT and an online stream is available here.
Hook 'em.