OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.- Mizzou turned double plays to end the eighth and ninth innings and held on for a 5-4 win over Oklahoma on Saturday at the Big 12 Championship in Oklahoma City, Okla. Missouri had just four hits in the game, as the Sooners out-hit the Tigers, 12-4.
Mizzou (34-24) will now await the result of Saturday night's Texas A&M-Texas Tech game. If Texas A&M wins, the Tigers will face Texas in Sunday's Big 12 Championship game. If Texas Tech wins, the Red Raiders will take on UT on Sunday.
Oklahoma loaded the bases with one out in the eighth inning, but sophomore Phil McCormick forced Kaleb Herron to ground into a 6-4-3 double play to end the threat.
Then in the ninth, the Sooners had runners on the corners with no outs before McCormick struck out Aaron Baker for the first out of the inning.
Sophomore Brad Buehler then came out of the bullpen and forced J.T. Wise, the Big 12 Player of the Year, to ground into a double play to end the game. The Tigers' shortstop Michael Liberto tracked down the ball hit by Wise behind second base, touched second and threw to first to get Wise.
The save for Buehler was his eighth of the year, which puts him in a tie for eighth in school history for saves in a season.
Sophomore Nick Tepesch earned the victory after striking out six in seven innings pitched. He allowed four runs, just two of which were earned, on eight hits to improve to 6-4 on the season.
The Tigers scored all five of their runs in just two innings. After OU plated runs in each of the first two innings, Missouri scored a pair in the fourth to tie the score. It then put together a three-run sixth inning to take its first lead of the day.
Senior Kyle Mach had an RBI single to drive in the first run of the sixth. That hit was the only hit of the game for Mizzou that drove in a run. The runs in the fourth inning were scored on a Mach sacrifice fly and a ground out by senior Steve Gray.
Gray picked up a second RBI ground out in the sixth inning and Missouri's final run of the game came when sophomore Ryan Ampleman reached on an error.
Mach was 1-for-3 with two RBI, while Senne had two hits and scored twice. Gray drove in two despite not recording a hit.