Oklahoma Sooners Baseball in Lubbock for a key Big 12 Series

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners Baseball Team (ranked #22) will be in Lubbock this weekend to play a key series in the Big 12 conference with only 2 more weeks to go. Oklahoma leads the Big 12 by one game with a 15-6 conference record. Oklahoma State and West Virginia are 1 game behind the Sooners with 14-7 records. Texas Tech is 12-12 in the Big 12 this season.

The Sooners will play at 6:30 p.m. CT Friday and 2 o'clock CT starts on Saturday and Sunday. The series can be seen via Big 12 NOW on ESPN+ with John Harris and Mike Gustafson on the call. All games can be heard locally in Oklahoma on SportsTalk 1400 AM/99.3 FM or nationwide on The Varsity app with OU's Toby Rowland on the call.

The Sooners will ty to return to form after finishing the Texas Series last weekend with a DH loss on Sunday after a win on Friday night. On Tuesday, the Sooners traveled to Tulsa to play ORU and lost for the third time in a row.

Here is the Sooners staff writers article about the Tech series. The weather looks like Saturday might be iffy, but the games look to be able to be played on Friday and Sunday if needed.

Good luck to the Sooners this weekend in Lubbock.

Boomer Sooner!

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/5/2/ ... ech-series

The two pitching staffs have the 'same' ERA's as OU holds a 5.39 ERA and Tech holds a 5.40 ERA. But the OU's staff has a .258 BA Against compared to the .280 BA Against that Lubbock holds. Tech also allows more walks and HB than OU has this season. Maybe the Sooners can pitch their way to a win or two this weekend. But as you will see below, the Red Raiders hit the ball bette than OU.

Oklahoma has committed 48 errors and allowed 40 unearned runs this season. Tech has allowed 34 unearned runs with 52 errors. They are roughly the same defensive team, but maybe Tech recovers better after a walk. Oklahoma has also struck out 5 more batters with 415 Ks this season.

On offense, Tech hits slightly better with a .314 BA while OU enters the series with a .304 BA. Tech's advantage in OB% is 15 points higher and the Slug% for Tech is 42 points higher. Tech has 21 more doubles and 25 more HRs. Tech has also scored 77 more runs on the season in 4 more games. Oklahoma does run better with 25 more steals but Tech is stealing at a 90% rate this season.

It looks like to me that the Sooners will have to play well to win the series and will certainly have to extremely well to sweep the Red Raiders.

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners Baseball Team won their opening game of the Texas Tech series 8-0 behind the outstanding pitching of Braden Davis who tossed a 2-hit, 2-walk, 8 strikeout shutout for 7.0 innings to provide the Sooners one of the best pitching performances of the season. Will Carsten followed Davis to the hill and finished the shutout for the Sooners with 2 scoreless innings allowing 2 hits and picking up a strikeout for the Sooners. The 4-hit shutout was just what the doctor ordered for the Sooner pitching staff to open the series in Lubbock.

On offense, two old veterans, John Spikerman and Jackson Nicklaus led the way with six hits and 3 RBIs between them. Scott Mudler and Michael Snyder each added two hits and combined for 3 more RBIs for the Sooners. The Sooners were 12 for 38 with 2 doubles (Madron) and a triple (Nicklaus).

Oklahoma put up crooked numbers on the scoreboard in the 2nd and the 5th innings with 2 runs followed by 4 runs. Single runs followed in the 6th and 7th innings to produce the 8-0 win.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the opening game win for Oklahoma.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/5/3/ ... t-out-tech

The teams meet for Game 2 at 1 p.m. CT Saturday, a time change from the originally-scheduled 2 p.m. start due to forecasted weather in the Lubbock area.

In games last night, West Virginia defeated Cincinatti 5-4 while Texas defeated OSU 7-5. The OSU loss slides OSU back to 2 games behind the Sooners along with Texas who won. The Mountaineers remain one game behind Oklahoma.

Good luck to the Sooners today in Lubbock.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Baseball Team won their second straight game in Lubbock on Saturday 7-5 to win another series this season. The series win is the fifth series win this season by the Sooners. The also moved to 17-6 in conference play which equals the most number of conference wins since 2009.

The Sooners hit and pitched well in the game as they pounded out 11 hits with 2 doubles and 2 HRs on offense and starter Kyson Witherspoon pitching 5 scoreless innings before running into some trouble in the 6th and 7th with the the game ending on a looking strikeout by Malachi Witherspoon to seal the victory.

The Sooners scored 2 runs in the 1st inning on 4 singles with one out with RBI singles by Easton Carmichael and Anthony Mackenzie. In the 5th inning the Sooners upped their lead to 6-0 as Bryce Madron lead off with a solo HR. Carmichael followed with a single before Michael Snyder was plunked by the Tech pitcher to put two runners on base. Mackenzie followed with a 3-run HR to build the 6-0 lead.

On the mound for the Sooners K. Witherspoon pitched 5 scoreless innings while allowing one hit (double) and 3 walks with two 1, 2, 3 innings. K. Witherspoon allowed a solo HR in the 6th inning to Tech with two outs in the inning but got out of the inning without further damage. In the 7th, Tech opened with a walk then two outs and then another walk. Coach Skip Johnson then went to the bullpen and brought in Carter Campbell. After a walk by Campbell, another pitching change was made with Dylan Crooks taking the ball. He gave up a single for 2 runs before getting a ground out to end the inning with OU leading 6-3.

Oklahoma picked up a run in the 8th inning on a Madron RBI single to make the score 7-3.

In the 9th inning, after pitching 1, 2, 3 8th inning, Crooks gave up a 1 out single on a close play at 1B that was overturned by review to safe. The Sooners went to the stopper Malachi Witherspoon to finish the game. After getting the second out of the inning on a fly ball to RC, M. Witherspoon gave up a 2-run HR to Lopez to make the score 7-5. But M. Witherspoon finished strong on a called strikeout to end the game as the batter was caught looking.

Kyson Witherspoon picked up the win for the Sooners with his 6.2 IP with 4 hits, 5 walks and 7 Ks allowing 3 runs.

Here is the Sooner staff wrtiers article about the 7-5 win for the Sooners.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/5/4/ ... es-at-tech

In other Big 12 play, West Virginia lost on Saturday to Cincinnati and OSU lost again to Texas. That moves West Virginia and Texas to a 15-8 record with OSU dropping to 14-9. OU with their 17-6 record now leads the Big 12 by 2 full games.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooner Baseball Team completed a 3-game sweep of the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Sunday in Lubbock as they won 8-7 after taking an early 6-1 lead in the 4th inning.

The Sooners used 7 pitchers in the game to get the win with only one, the last one, Malachi Witherspoon allowing no runs and no base runners. Witherspoon got the Save with Carter Campbell getting the Win in relief as a middle reliever. Probably the starter, Carson Atwood pitched the best for the Sooners outside of Witherspoon. Atwood pitched 3.1 innings and allowed just one run on 2 hits and 4 walks. the other five pitchers including Campbell all gave up at least one run, but Brandon's Girton's was unearned.

The Sooner bats allowed the pitching to have a bit of an off day. The Sooners collected 12 hits with 1 double, and 3 HRs. They also picked up 5 walks against only 5 Ks. the Sooners scored 2 runs in four innings. In the first inning, Snyder hit a 2-run HR. In the 3rd inning, Spikerman hit a 2-run HR. In the fourth, Madron had an RBI single followed by a SFLY by Carmichael. In the 6th, Carmichael added his own 2-run HR. On the day, Spikerman had 3 hits along with Snyder and Willits. Carmichael led the Sooners with 3 RBIs. Every starter reached base at least once on a hit or a walk.

The Red Raiders trailed 6-1 through the 4th inning. In the bottom of the 5th, they scored 3 runs off of Hitt and Girton to make the score 6-4. OU responded with Carmichael's 2-run HR in the top of the 6th to lead 8-4. In the 7th, Tech collected back-to-back hits with a double and a single followed by a SFLY to make the score 8-5. In the bottom of the 9th, Tech lead off with a solo HR to make the score 8-6. After a pitching change by OU, Tech picked up a walk and a double to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with the typing run on second base. Coach Johnson brought in Malachi Witherspoon to relieve in a high pressure situation. Witherspoon struck out the first batter on swinging strike for the first out of the inning. Witherspoon got a ground ball out to second base as the runners moved up a base to make the score 8-7. Witherspoon closed it out with a fly ball to RF for the final out to secure the win.

An important play in the game was an outfield assist by John Spikerman as he threw out a runner at the plate from mid-LC for the final out in the bottom of the 4th inning to keep the score at 6-1. He made a nice throw to Madron who made a nice tag also on the play.

The Sweep of Texas Tech moves the Sooners conference up to 18-6. In other Big 12 action on Sunday. OSU defeated Texas to move both teams to a 15-9 record, 3 full games behind OU. West Virginia also lost their game to Cincinnati to give them the same 15-9 record and also trail OU by 3 games.

The Big 12-leading Sooners return to action next weekend in Norman for the home regular season finale vs. Baylor (20-26, 9-15). The three-game series begins Friday at 6:30 p.m. CT at L. Dale Mitchell Park with Sunday's finale serving as Senior Day.

Boomer Sooner!