• Rohlinger’s bat, Guerra’s arm give OU victory over Houston

Oklahoma came to L. Dale Mitchell Park Saturday with the lingering stench of a stunning loss to TCU.

The Sooners had been shipped to the losers’ bracket after giving up three runs in the top of the ninth inning. Having to beat Houston to keep their season afloat wasn’t going to be easy.

And it wasn’t, but those outs OU (41-20) couldn’t get Friday finally arrived Saturday in its 8-6 victory over the Cougars (39-22).

OU starter Steven Guerra took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and gave one of his best performances of the season.

“Our guys rode that,” OU coach Sunny Golloway said. “He was terrific.”

He took advantage of home plate umpire Travis Katzenmeier’s wide strike zone, holding the Cougars to four hits and matching a career high with eight strikeouts over 71/3 innings.

He stayed ahead in the count throughout the game. Eighty of the 113 pitches he threw were strikes.

“Getting ahead sets up every pitch because they’re looking either off-speed or fastball,” Guerra said after improving to 11-3. “It gave me a chance to keep them off balance and get them to chase pitches off the plate.”

Houston coach Rayner Noble thought the strike zone was a big issue. Five of Guerra’s strikeouts were on called third strikes.

“We have to give their starting pitcher (Guerra) a lot of credit for the job he did working with the strike zone that was available,” he said.

Houston didn’t put up much of a fight until late in the game.

OU, which was the visiting team, had the Cougars on the ropes early.

Ryan Rohlinger went 3-for-5 and drove in a career-high five runs to lead OU’s 14-hit afternoon.