No. 16 Oklahoma Uses Home Runs to Win Wacky Game, Even Series vs. Vanderbilt – Sports Illustrated

Friday’s game between Oklahoma and Vanderbilt was one of many twists and turns, but the Sooners ultimately prevailed.
No. 16 OU defeated the unranked Commodores 13-11 to even the weekend series. The Sooners’ win avenges their loss to Vanderbilt on Thursday.
Just moments after Vandy starter Brennan Sieber tossed the first pitch, it looked like the Sooners would run away with it as Oklahoma scored five runs in the top of the first inning.
Brendan Brock got a runner across on a fielder’s choice before Camden Johnson hit a three-run home run. Drew Dickerson added one more on an RBI single before the Commodores could record the third out.
As strong as the top of the first was for OU, the bottom of the frame was even more disastrous.
Oklahoma starter Cameron Johnson walked four of the first five batters that he faced, and each of them came in to score. Johnson logged only one out before coach Skip Johnson pulled him in favor of Xander Mercurius. The pitching change, though, didn’t patch things up, as the Commodores ended the inning with an 8-5 lead.
Vanderbilt added one more run in the second, and it seemed like the Sooners had no momentum.
But a couple swings of the bat flipped the game on its head.
Camden Johnson hit his second home run of the game — a grand slam — in the top of the fourth, tying the game at 9-9. And two innings later, Deiten Lachance hit a grand slam of his own to make it 13-9 in favor of OU.
The Commodores, though, didn’t go away. Braden Holcomb answered Lachance’s grand slam with a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth to make it a two-run contest.
But that was Vanderbilt’s last blow.
Out of the bullpen, Jason Bodin kept Vandy scoreless in the seventh and eighth innings before Jackson Cleveland got the final three outs in the ninth.
Camden Johnson ended with a 3-for-5 line and drove in seven runs. Lachance, Jaxon Willits and Trey Gambill also logged multiple knocks.
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Reliever Trent Collier, who came in after Mercurius in the second inning, collected the win. He allowed only one earned run on three hits in four innings. 
With the win, Oklahoma is 23-11 overall and 6-8 in SEC play. The Commodores dropped to 21-15 and 7-7 after the loss.
Oklahoma has a chance to win its first conference series in three weeks. The Sooners were swept by Texas on the road two weeks ago before losing two of three at home against Alabama last week.
The first pitch of Saturday’s rubber match is scheduled for 1 p.m.
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Carson Field has worked full-time in the sports media industry since 2020 in Colorado, Texas and Wyoming as well as nationally, and he has earned degrees from Arizona State University and Texas A&M University. When he isn’t covering the Sooners, he’s likely golfing, fishing or doing something else outdoors. Twitter: https://x.com/carsondfield
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