Sooner Pitching Dominates Tigers, Forces Rubber Match
David Billiot Jr • March 21, 2026
Oklahoma - 4, LSU - 2
Friday Night Recap
With their first opportunity to clinch an SEC series tonight, LSU fell just short with a 4-2 loss to Oklahoma to even the series. The night belonged to Casan Evans on Thursday, but Friday belonged to Sooner pitching. L.J. Mercurius wasn’t quite as magical as Evans, but he still rolled through the LSU lineup, retiring 10 in a row at one point. He was on the ropes early with back to back singles to start off the game, but was able to shut the opening rally down. After John Pearson homered to leadoff the 2nd inning, it was all Mercurius. His record improved to 5-1 with the victory tonight. The trio of arms out of the Oklahoma bullpen delivered big pitch after big pitch, despite some very tense moments with Alex Box coming to life late in the game.
Cooper Moore is the story on the LSU side and not for good reason. After a perfect first 2 innings, the Sooners began making him pay for his few mistakes and scratched a few runs across in the 3rd and 4th. But the story comes in the 5th, as Moore spiked his first pitch of the inning and Jay Johnson immediately went out to the mound. Jay told us after the game that it was Moore’s tricep that was bothering him and that’s all of the info he had by the time he did his post game press conference. He did say that he believes Moore will “be ok”, but has no idea if he may miss a week, two weeks, or a month. The initial concern was that it was the elbow, which is devastating for pitchers, but according to Jay, he did not believe that was the case as of now. It’s a tough ask to have your bullpen cover 5 innings in an SEC game, but LSU’s did a great job by only allowing two more runs the rest of the way. They simply just did not get the help they needed from the Tiger bats.
Pitching
Cooper Moore wasted no time trying to rebound from back to back losses after starting his season with three straight wins. He attacked the Sooner lineup right from the start, getting a 2 pitch ground out to leadoff hitter Trey Gambill, who’s best attribute is getting on base. He followed that up with back to back strikeouts, picking up right where Casan Evans left off. It was another quick 10 pitch inning in the 2nd, which included a strikeout and another play deep in the 6-hole that Steven Milam makes look way too easy. Moore hadn’t made any mistakes through the first 2 innings, but he left a few balls up in the zone in the 3rd and Oklahoma made him pay. It started with a leadoff double, then after a sacrifice bunt, had 9-hole hitter Jason Walk down 0-2, but gave him a hittable pitch and Walk tied the game with a single. The damage was nearly worse when Gambill got a hanging breaking ball that he ripped in to right-center, but as he has done all year, Derek Curiel made a phenomenal diving catch to rob a sure extra base hit. The mistakes continued in the 4th, as Moore allowed back to back 1 out singles, the first of which was another 2-strike Sooner hit. With runners on the corners, a wild pitch gave Oklahoma their first lead of the series. He was able to escape without further damage, but after 21 pitches through 2 innings, Moore racked up 40 between the 3rd and 4th innings alone. Things got scary in the 5th, as he threw one pitch, a spiked fastball and Jay Johnson and head trainer Isaac Trujillo immediately came out. They spoke to Moore for about 5 minutes, but pulled him out without the junior throwing a single warmup pitch.
- Final line: 4.0 IP / 4 hits / 2 runs / 4 Ks / 0 BBs / 62 pitches (43 strikes, 69%)
Following Moore’s early exit, Cooper Williams came in following back to back great outings. He threw 3 straight pitches out of the zone to allow the leadoff walk and then got a groundball, but it was hit too slow for a double play and Milam had to get the out at 1st base. Not being able to get the lead runner out immediately came back to bite the Tigers, as a single to left field scored the runner from 2nd to make it 3-1. After a stolen base and a groundout back to Williams, Jay would make his walk out to the mound for another pitching change.
- Final line: .2 IP / 1 hit / 1 run / 0 Ks / 1 BB / 16 pitches (10 strikes, 63%)
Mavrick Rizy came on with 2 outs and the runner on 3rd and despite starting the hitter off with a 3-0 count, battled back to record the strikeout to end the inning. That would be the only out he recorded, as he returned in the 6th and gave up yet another Sooner 2-strike hit and then walked another.
- Final line: .1 IP / 1 hit / 0 runs / 1 K / 1 BB
With runners on 1st and 2nd and no one out and already down two runs, Grant Fontenot entered in his biggest spot of the season. The senior delivered, going strikeout, groundout, strikeout to end the threat. The final strikeout came on the next pitch after John Pearson dropped a pop up in foul territory. Fontenot returned for the 7th after recording a big first out on a bang-bang play at 1st base, he walked the next hitter on 4 pitches and that would be the end of his night. He deserves a tremendous amount of credit for that performance in the 6th inning to keep it a 1-run game.
- Final line: 1.1 IP / 0 hits / 0 runs / 2 Ks / 1 BB
Santiago Garcia entered following the 1-out walk and quickly did his job, as he has done for the past few weeks. A fly out and a strikeout left the runner stranded at 2nd base. He returned for the 8th and recorded a quick 1-2-3 inning, including strikeout of Sooner leader Jaxon Willits to start things off and then another highlight play by Steven Milam on a slow roller, assisted by a beautiful pick out of the dirt by Zach Yorke. Garcia returned for the 9th and wasn’t able to keep a 1-out Sooner double from adding an insurance run, as Gambill singled to deliver his second RBI of the night. He would get caught stealing to end the top of the inning.
- Final line: 2.2 IP / 2 hits / 1 run / 3 Ks / 0 BB
Hitting
Chris Stanfield was the only Tiger to record multiple hits on Friday night, finishing 2-4. It looked like he had scored the tying run in the 7th inning on a ball to the backstop, but it barely grazed Milam and was a dead ball.
Omar Serna continues to find himself in big spots with these extra opportunities in the starting lineup and he seems to come through at least once per game. His RBI single in the 6th inning pulled LSU within a run to make it a 3-2 game. He also walked once, finishing 1-3.
John Pearson’s solo homerun to leadoff the 2nd inning was his third of the season. It was his 4th consecutive start, making the most of his recent chances to make an impact. He finished 1-4.
After pinch hitting in the 7th inning, Seth Dardar finished 1-2. His 1-out single in the 9th inning allowed the Tigers to bring the tying run to the plate. Unfortunately, Stanfield hit a hard ground ball to Camden Johnson at 3rd base and the Sooners turned their second 5-4-3 double play of the night.
Quiet nights for Jake Brown pretty much look like this one. He went 1-2 with 2 walks and scored once, continuing to make an impact even when he’s not driving in a ridiculous amount of RBIs.
Up Next
LSU and Oklahoma will square off in the rubber match tomorrow afternoon. First pitch will be for 2 pm central. William Schmidt will take the mound for the Tigers with his record of 3-1. He entered the weekend as the team leader in strikeouts with 39, but has since been passed by Casan Evans. The sophomore is coming off of his early exit at Vanderbilt where he was experience back tightness, so that is something to keep an eye on, although Jay Johnson has said he’s good to go and did not appear on the injury report. Oklahoma will counter with freshman LHP Cord Rager, who will make his 6th start of the season. He is 2-1, with back-to-back no decisions in his last two starts. In his first SEC start last week vs Texas A&M, the freshman struggled. He only went 3.0 innings, allowing 4 runs on 5 hits, while striking out 6 and only walking one. LSU falls to 16-8 (2-3 SEC), while Oklahoma improves to 18-5 (3-2 SEC).
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Team Stats (Hawks at Pelicans) Final Score: 99-121 Rebounds: 36-49 Assists: 20-27 Blocks: 4-4 Steals: 11-15 Turnovers: 19-23 Stat Leaders Scoring Leaders: CJ McCollum, 14; Saddiq Bey, 25 Rebound Leaders: Onyeka Okongwu, 10; Karlo Matkovic, 10 Assist Leaders: Kingston Flemings, 6; Jeremiah Fears, 7 My Player of the Game: Saddiq Bey Chrissy's Key Takeaways * The Hawks average 142 points per game, but because of the Pelicans stifling defense, the Hawks didn't score even 100. * Saddiq Bey finished the game with 25 points, six rebounds, and four steals -- all around huge night for him . * Dejounte Murray did not play as he is recovering from the birth of his child, and Jordan Poole and Yves Missi are still on the injured list . * Jeremiah Fears needs to be the only starting PG going forward. * The Pelicans will play the Memphis Grizzles on Monday, and that team is 6-0 on the season. Follow @TheKneaux on X, and follow me there too, @SportsChrissy.
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