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OU baseball notches 2-0 win over Dallas Baptist, first shutout vs. DBU since 2010

Eddie On3by: Eddie Radosevich03/04/26

There was no dogpile in the middle of Kimrey Family Stadium on Tuesday night for OU baseball. 

But there might as well should have been. It’s happened. Finally. 

No. 12 Oklahoma improved to 11-2 on the season with a 2-0 shutout of Dallas Baptist, behind eight different Sooners hurlers.

Deiten Lachance drove in the Sooners first run of the game with an RBI single in the third and knocked in the insurance run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth. 

An under the radar rivalry of sorts versus Dan Heefner’s Patriots program has been brewing for years. Skip Johnson’s club got over the hump Tuesday, shutting out the Patriots for the first time since 2010. 

SOONERS ARMS THE DIFFERENCE

Midweek games can be fickle. Even moreso when you have four games over the course of the weekend. In total, Johnson called on eight different arms to get Oklahoma across the finish line Tuesday. 

Within each of the eight different outings Tuesday, there can be some positives taken. 

“That’s the biggest thing. You try to build confidence as you go through and you want to leave them on a good note. You kind of worry sometimes about what happens the outing before and if it doesn’t carry over to the next outing,” said Johnson after his Sooners snapped a four-game skid against Dallas Baptist.

Jaden Barfield made his first start of the season and cruised through his lone inning of work. Isaac Williams tallied a pair of strikeouts in his inning of work. Xander Mercurius stranded a pair of baserunners in the third after allowing the first two he faced to reach base. Reid Hensley worked around a pair of walks. Michael Catalano earned the victory, working two innings allowing a hit and striking out two. Gavyn Jones, Jason Bodin and Jackson Cleveland each worked a frame in a relief. Cleveland picked up the save.

In total, eight different pitchers contributed in the Sooners first shutout of DBU since 2010, allowing just three hits, no runs and 11 strikeouts. Easy enough, huh? 

“I don’t think it’s really difficult because I’ve been watching those guys in the bullpen. Just throw them out there and hope they are themselves,” Johnson said. “You hope they are the best versions of themselves that day.

“(Jason) Bodin was himself tonight. So was Gavyn (Jones). We put Gavyn in a difficult situation the other night with people on the bases but I thought he was really tonight as well. Getting two innings out of Catalano was huge.” 

LACHANCE KNOCKS IN TWO 

It was a quiet night for Oklahoma offensively. Sometimes you’re going to have to manufacture and rely on the defense to win a ballgame. They did just that on Tuesday. 

Lachance knocked in the Sooners first run in third with an RBI single, scoring Kyle Branch. Then it was Lachance again in the eighth, lifting a sac fly to centerfield scoring Dasan Harris. Harris opened the eighth with a pinch-hit infield single. 

Small(ish) ball if you will on a night in which the north wind howled in from centerfield. 

“I thought in the seventh inning we could have done a little better. It’s a game of imperfection. It’s a game of execution when you get into a tight game against a good team in an environment like this. The wind was blowing straight across. (Brendan) Brock hit two balls that probably would have been out. Lachance hit one that probably would have been out. That’s the difference in the game. It goes like that sometimes,” said Johnson. 

NEXT UP

Oklahoma (11-2) hosts Santa Clara for a four game series starting on Thursday. 

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