Skip to main content
Oklahoma
Join Now

OU baseball wins wild series opener, 8-7, vs. Texas A&M

Eddie On3by: Eddie Radosevich03/14/26

It was an OU baseball game that had it all on Friday night at Kimrey Family Stadium. It had a pair of comebacks. Back-to-back sixth inning blasts that tied the game, resulting in an ejection. And a viral clip of profanity-laced exchanges between the Oklahoma and Texas A&M dugout. 

Oklahoma trailed 4-0 before even picking up a bat. They trailed 7-4 heading to the bottom of the sixth. 

Then with a pair of swings from Brendan Brock and Jaxon Willits, Oklahoma had life. A lot of life that offers a foundation for what’s to come over the next two months. So is life in the Southeastern Conference. 

Jason Bodin picked up his first win of the season, throwing the final 2.1 innings, striking out four. Dasan Harris’ sac fly gave Oklahoma the series-opening victory 8-7. But everything in between sets the tone for the weekend. And possibly the season. 

“The 10th man showed up. I thought that was really good,” said Oklahoma head coach Skip Johnson. “We never lost the momentum in the game. I was really happy about that because you can lose the momentum and feel sorry for yourself. But those guys didn’t. They picked Cam up just teammates. This was a better game to show you the grit of our team and how they can pick each other up.” 

BATTLE TESTED 

Oklahoma starter Cam Johnson had been electric through his first four starts of the season. The control issues that plagued the 6-foot-6, left-hander had seemingly been non-existent. Then they returned. 

Johnson was chased after 2.1 innings, walking a season-high seven. When Oklahoma and Johnson finally escaped a four-run first inning, it felt ‘maybe-that’s-not-so-bad.’ 

“I thought if Cam went out there and just attacked like he’s been doing. I mean he’s due a bad game like that and he’ll be better for that,” Johnson said. “He’ll understand that. It wasn’t as bad as it has been which is really good. We’ll try to fix the kinks and whatever happened for the next time out.

“But I was really happy that we didn’t feel sorry for ourselves. We got back in it.” 

After the Sooners first swings at the plate, Oklahoma had cut the deficit in half. Brendan Brock delivered an RBI triple. Jaxon Willits lifted a sacrifice fly. Perhaps it was just a bit of foreshadowing. 

Texas A&M struck back with a tally in the third. In the bottom half, Willits and Deiten Lachance answered with RBI singles. All of a sudden a 4-0 game had turned into a 5-4 game. There was life. 

SIXTH INNING MADNESS

Gavyn Jones was almost out of the sixth inning. After issuing a leadoff walk followed by a Gavin Grahovac single, Jones proceeded to strikeout Cade Sorrell and retire Chris Hacopian with a ground ball to first. 

Wesley Jordan stood between Jones and a clean frame. And Jordan won, lacing a two-run double to right. A massive swing in the ballgame after Oklahoma had reeled in the momentum from cutting it to a one run game. With one swing, Jordan extended the Aggies lead to 7-4. 

But as they did in the first, Oklahoma got busy in the bottom half. Jason Walk opened the inning with a four-pitch walk. Juan Vargas bounced back with a strikeout followed by a Camden Johnson fly out. Much like Jones in the top half, Vargas had nearly escaped without any damage done. 

BACK-TO-BACK JACKS

Enter Brendan Brock, who smashed his team-leading fifth home run to left. All of the sudden it was 7-6. Three pitches later, it was Willits who– again delivered– turning on a 2-1 pitch from Vargas, blasting a game-tying home run into the Friday night sky. Pandemonium ensued. 

Willits spiked his bat in front of the Aggie dugout which quickly caught ire of Aggie head coach Michael Early. A shouting match between the Oklahoma dugout and the Texas A&M dugout began. If this is not what SEC baseball is all about, I don’t know what it looks like. 

By the time the umpire crew had calmed the waters, it was Jaxon Willits who was ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct. 

“It’s unsportsmanlike conduct. They said he threw the bat and looked in their dugout. We have video that shows that he didn’t. We’ll send it to the commissioners office. It’s in their hands now. It’s not in our hands. We’ll pick him up if he’s not ready to play. If he can’t play when the ruling comes back. We’ll see that as it goes through the night,” said Johnson. 

By rule, a player ejected is suspended for the next game. Oklahoma is expected to hear prior to the second game of the series. 

BODIN PICKS UP WIN

When the dust settled there was still baseball to be played. 

Jason Bodin pitched the final 2.1 innings, not allowing a hit and striking out four. He worked around a one-out walk in the eighth and a hit batter in the ninth. A high leverage situation for one of the Sooners most veteran arms in the bullpen. 

“It’s a starting point, for sure. Everyone kept battling tonight. That’s what a good team does. They just keep battling. We had our ups and downs but to start off the year hot in SEC play is a big thing. The SEC plays tough. I’ve been in it for three years now. It was great,” said Bodin after shutting the door in the final frame. 

HARRIS GETS JOB DONE IN EIGHTH

It was Walk – again– who led off the home half of the eighth with a single. Trey Gambill followed, being struck by an 0-2 pitch. A&M opted to pitch around Brock with an intentional walk, loading the bases for Dasan Harris who entered the game in the sixth following the Willits controversial ejection. 

Calmly, the back-up outfielder sent the would-be game-winning sacrifice fly to center, scoring Walk easily. 

NEXT UP

Oklahoma (16-2, 1-0) and Texas A&M return to Kimrey Family Stadium on Saturday for the second game of the series. First pitch set for 4 p.m. 

You may also like