Desperation might be Oklahoma’s best medicine.

Facing a must-win game against Kansas State Sunday, the Sooners had what might have been their best performance of the season in a 10-2 romp over the Wildcats at L. Dale Mitchell Park.

The victory lifted OU to 31-21-1 overall and 8-15-1 in the Big 12 Conference. More importantly, it hopped the Sooners past Kansas State (24-27, 8-16) for eighth place in the conference.

“This series was huge for us,” OU catcher J.T. Wise said. “We knew what we needed to do today and we came out and did it.”

If the season ended Sunday, the Sooners would hold the final spot for the Big 12 tournament. Taking two of three from the Wildcats gave OU the tiebreaker.

The fact OU won with a second straight strong pitching performance fuels belief the virus that caused them to plummet down the conference standings might have run its course.

Ryan Duke held the Wildcats to three hits and one run over seven innings to get the victory. The performance improved Duke to 6-4 on the season and followed a strong one by Andrew Doyle in Saturday’s victory.

“Today, the key was Duke on the mound,” OU coach Sunny Golloway said. “He kept shutting them down and making pitches. He pitched really well and the team rallied around that pitching performance and scored runs when it needed to.”

Justin Murray, who gave up five runs over 31⁄3 innings, took the loss. He dropped to 2-2.

Scoring runs hasn’t really been OU’s problem this season, and it certainly wasn’t Saturday. Wise went 3-for-4 and drove in four runs. He clubbed a three-run homer in the third inning to help the Sooners pull away.

Mike Gosse went 2-for-4 and accounted for the final run with a solo homer in the eighth inning. Casey Johnson went 3-for-4 and knocked in a pair.

“It seemed like we always had runners on base,” Wise said. “We were able to drive them in.”

The hot hitting kept the pressure off Duke. After Wise’s blast, the Sooners led 4-0 and Kansas State never really threatened to make a charge.

“Seeing that lead allowed me to kind of relax a little bit,” Duke said. “I was able to establish my fastball and keep my pitch count down.”

OU added four more runs in the fifth inning on a two-run double by Johnson, an RBI single by Trey Sperring and a sacrifice fly by Spencer Selby.