Tag: Bryce Madron

Oklahoma baseball adds JUCO catcher Brendan Brock

Brendan Brock commits to Oklahoma Baseball.

After one of the best baseball seasons in recent memory, Oklahoma Baseball  is trying to replicate the success of winning a regular season conference title and get back to Omaha for the first time since 2022.

This past season’s team was incredible. They produced at the plate and picked up big-time performance from the mound. Unfortunately, a few notable contributors are set to leave, so Oklahoma will have opportunities available for guys who need to impact the game. Bryce Madron, first baseman Michael Snyder, third baseman Anthony Mackenzie, and left fielder Kendall Pettis are all set to depart.

Easton Carmichael and Scott Mudler provide OU with great options behind the plate.

The Sooners landed a commitment from another player capable of playing catcher as Brendan Brock of Southwestern Illinois committed to the Sooners on Thursday.

Brock played for one year in junior college ball, where he hit .398 in 56 games. He hit 15 home runs with  52 RBIs, scoring 68 runs and swiping 39 bags.

He has versatility, too. He plays catcher but also spent time roaming the outfield. He has some good bat-to-ball skills but showcases the athleticism that Skip and his staff covet to be a menace on the basepaths.

All in all, this commitment is just the type of player Johnson loves. Brock is athletic, versatile, and can do some of everything as an offensive piece. He will have to adjust to the quality of baseball in the SEC, but he should be able to compete for playing time in next spring.

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Sooners eliminated from NCAA Tournament after 7-1 loss to UConn

Oklahoma Sooners season comes to an end after 7-1 loss to UCONN in regional title game

Monday was a rough day for both Oklahoma sports teams on the diamond. While the ladies of the softball team lost at the hands of Florida, the baseball team had their own business to tend to.

The mission was straightforward: Win and move on to the Super Regionals to face the Florida State Seminoles.

However, things didn’t go nearly as planned. The UConn Huskies, winners of the Big East regular-season crown, laid waste to the Sooners in Norman to punch their ticket to Tallahassee.

Carson Atwood received the start for the Sooners, while the Huskies sent out DIII transfer Gabe Van Emon to start things in the winner-take-all game.

After keeping the Huskies off the board first, the Sooners opened up the bottom of the first, looking to strike first and capture some serious momentum.

John Spikerman led the inning off with a single up the middle before Bryce Madron worked a walk. An Easton Carmichael double play followed and UConn coach Jim Penders decided to intentionally walk Michael Snyder. Snyder has terrorized opposing pitching staffs in the regional, which led to a Jaxon Willits ground out and the end of the inning.

What started as a promising half-inning fizzled out big time. That was virtually the game for the Sooners.

Both teams were held scoreless until the fourth inning, when things came apart for the Sooners.

Korey Morton cranked a two-run homer over the fence in left-center to put the Huskies out in front. Catcher Scott Mudler made a critical throwing error to complete what would have been a strikeout and the third out of the inning. The ball rolled to the wall on the right field, and Tyler Minnick raced around to third base.

After Skip Johnson relieved Arwood, he brought in Carter Campbell, who promptly gave up a two-run homer. The Huskies lead doubled to 4-0.

After connecting on a couple of singles, in the bottom half of the inning, OU remained scoreless. They couldn’t put together the big hit when needed.

Luke Broadhurst and Korey Morton delivered RBI singles for UConn later in the game to make it 6-0 and that pretty much decided the game.

Van Emon, hardly a flamethrower, used well-located breaking pitches to keep the Sooners off balance. His defense behind him, by far the best defensive unit in this region and the best defensive team OU has played all season, kept dazzling with spectacular plays and made the routine ones look routine. He pitched 7.1 shutout innings, allowed five hits, and walked just two batters en route to the win.

A dynamic offense like Oklahoma’s just ran into bad luck, and a much-improved pitching unit had one of its least effective outings in quite some time. Throw in some defensive miscues by the Sooners, and you will get the result.

With the loss, OU’s season comes to an ends. The Sooners will have quite a few returners but lose some valuable pieces as they leap to the SEC next season. There will be multiple decisions to make, and Skip Johnson and his staff will have to use the transfer portal to fill in gaps along the way.

Johnson and this team were a much-improved group, winning a Big 12 regular season title and earning a top 16 national seed. It’s not the way anyone expected the season to end, but OU shouldn’t hang its head. They put together a terrific season.

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Oklahoma Sooners pull off doubleheader sweep

Oklahoma swept an elimination doubleheader to keep their season alive.

Sunday was a long day at the ballpark for the Oklahoma Sooners. However, it was worth every single second of it as the Sooners won not once but twice to keep their season alive and force a do-or-die Game 7 for the opportunity to advance to the Super Regionals where the ACC Tournament runner-ups, Florida State, await them.

The Sooners had no margin for error, as a loss would end their season. After a short rain delay, they took on Duke, the ACC Tournament champs.

Duke drew first blood on an A.J. Garcia single to score Zac Morris and make it a 1-0 Blue Devils lead in the first inning. After getting caught stealing twice, the Sooners managed nothing in their half of their first.

Later, Rocco Garza-Gongora scored Jaxon Willits on an RBI single in the third off Fran Oschell before freshman Jason Walk got in on the action and lined a two-run triple to give OU a 3-1 lead.

Grant Stevens, a senior left-hander, put forth one of the best performances of his career as he held down an elite Duke offense for seven innings. He had seven strikeouts while giving up just one earned run on six hits and two walks, giving Oklahoma a legitimate chance to win.

The Sooners added another run in the bottom of the seventh inning when Michael Snyder slapped a double off the wall in left field, scoring Easton Carmichael to push Oklahoma’s lead to 4-1. Carson Atwood entered in relief and was promptly met with resistance as a double and home run brought Duke closer at 4-3.

Malachi Witherspoon shut down the eighth-inning rally and kept Duke quiet in the ninth as Oklahoma knocked out Duke to set up a rematch with UConn.

After a short break, the Sooners hopped right back into action, knowing they would have to beat UConn not once but twice to reach the Super Regionals.

The Huskies sent Garrett Coe to the bump while Oklahoma rolled with Brendan Girton. Girton didn’t have it today, and Skip Johnson wasted no time giving him the hook. In the first inning, UConn’s leadoff hitter Caleb Shpur cracked a solo home run to left field to open the scoring. Luke Broadhurst singled in Paul Tammaro to make it a 2-0 Huskies lead.

OU responded immediately in the top half of the second on a Scott Mudler RBI single to drive in Jackson Nicklaus.

Out of the bullpen came Jett Lodes, who relieved Girton after a walk to start the bottom of the second. Lodes gave up a run-scoring single to Korey Morton as the Huskies took a 3-1 lead. From that point on, Lodes was nails for the Sooners.

He twirled seven scoreless innings and allowed three hits while walking just two batters. He also racked up seven strikeouts during his outing.

In the top of the third, Oklahoma responded in a big way, with Michael Snyder slamming a two-run homer off Coe to tie the game. The teams remained in a deadlock until the top of the eighth.

In the eighth, the Sooners used patient approaches against the Huskies’ Kieran Finnegan, which paid off. A Jaxon Willits single and a walk by Nicklaus set the scene for Scott Mudler to deliver another RBI Single, giving OU a 4-3 lead. Isaiah Lane walked to load the bases, and the lineup turned over to the top. John Spikerman flew out, but on the very first pitch of his at-bat, OU’s Bryce Madron ripped Braden Quinn’s breaking pitch into the left-center field gap for a 2-run double and a 6-3 Oklahoma lead.

UConn designated hitter Tyler Minick hit a home run in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to 6-4, but that was it as junior Ryan Lambert came on in the ninth for the save and locked up the win.

With the win, the stage is set for Monday. There will be one final game between UConn and OU. The winner will face FSU in the Super Regionals, and the loser’s season will end.

The game will be at 8 p.m. local time and can be seen on ESPN+.

 

 

Oklahoma Sooners fall to UConn Huskies 4-1 in Norman Regional

Oklahoma Sooners couldn’t hit with runners on and fall to UConn 4-1.

After a picture-perfect start to hosting their first regional in almost 20 years, [autotag]Skip Johnson[/autotag] and the Oklahoma Sooners saw it all come crashing down on Saturday night. They lost to the Big East regular season champion UCONN Huskies 4-1.

The Sooners came into the game with loads of momentum after a 14-0 shutout of Oral Roberts Friday night. On Friday afternoon, UCONN beat the two-seed in the region, Duke, by a 4-1 score.

Both teams knew Saturday night would be a grind, but for OU, they felt great.

[autotag]Braden Davis[/autotag], the staff ace, didn’t pitch on Friday because Johnson wanted to save him for this matchup instead. While he was right in theory, things didn’t go as he wanted them to.

Oklahoma was the road team, so they started the game batting first. Oklahoma could get nothing off Connecticut pitcher Stephen Quigley despite a Bryce Madron hit.

Davis worked out of a jam in the bottom of the second to keep things tied. Oklahoma had two hits in the top half of the third, but Quigley worked himself out of a jam and kept Oklahoma off the board.

In the bottom half of the inning, a two-out rally featuring two walks and a single by the Huskies’ Korey Morton allowed UConn to draw first blood and take a 1-0 lead.

Oklahoma got doubles in the fourth and fifth innings from [autotag]Michael Snyder[/autotag] and [autotag]John Spikerman[/autotag], but couldn’t bring them home.

That would remain the story of the night for the Sooners. In the bottom of the seventh inning, after back-to-back 1-out singles, RHP Dylan Crooks entered in relief of Braden Davis, who pitched 6.1 innings, allowing seven hits and walking three batters. He threw 109 pitches and struck out ten batters. He was also on the hook for three earned runs when Luke Broadhurst hammered a ball to deep left field to push the Huskies’ lead to 4-0.

Kendall Pettis hit a homer in the eighth, but that would be the last hurrah from the Sooners before the game ended. The Sooners got Jackson Nicklaus up for the tying run, but Nicklaus couldn’t make any noise, and the game was over.

Oklahoma’s inability to get the big hit doomed them. They pitched well enough to stay within striking distance but could never push themselves to get the one or two big hits necessary to flip momentum to their side.

Redshirt senior outfielder Kendall Pettis went 2-for-3 with a home run. He was the standout offensively.

With the loss, the Sooners will face Duke, the two-seed in this regional, with their season on the line.

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Photos from Oklahoma Sooners 14-0 win over Oral Roberts in the NCAA Tournament

Best photos from the Oklahoma Sooners 14-0 win over Oral Roberts in the NCAA Tournament.

The Oklahoma Sooners got off to a roaring start in their NCAA Tournament opener in the Norman Regional against Oral Roberts. Kyson Witherspoon and Carter Campbell combined for a shutout and the Sooners offense put up 14 runs behind three home runs.

It was a magnificent return to the starting lineup for [autotag]Bryce Madron[/autotag], who went 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs. The top three of the order, [autotag]John Spikerman[/autotag], Madron, and [autotag]Easton Carmichael[/autotag], combined to go 9-for-13 with two home runs, eight RBIs, and seven runs scored. It was a dominant performance for the top of the lineup.

“It was a confidence booster,” Madron said of his return. “Just going to try to keep it going throughout the regional, and I know our guys are going to be pretty good. I’m just going to do what I can.”

Witherspoon showed resiliency, working around trouble multiple times to keep Oral Roberts off the scoreboard. He threw six shutout innings with nine strikeouts. He allowed just one hit and was able to work around five walks on the evening. Campbell allowed just two hits and no walks during his three innings of work.

Now the Sooners will take on the UConn Huskies in the winner’s bracket on Saturday evening. A win there will take them to the Norman Regional final on Sunday with a shot to move on to the Super Regionals next weekend.

Sooners cruise to a 14-0 win over Oral Roberts to open NCAA Tournament play

Kyson Witherspoon and Carter Campbell combined for the shutout and the Sooners offense erupted for a 14-0 win over Oral Roberts in the NCAA tournament.

It was the first time the Oklahoma Sooners hosted postseason baseball at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman since 2010, and the boys in Crimson and Cream were ready to rock and roll from the opening pitch.

Oklahoma entered the NCAA Tournament fresh off a loss to their in-state rivals, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, in the Big 12 Tournament Championship game. However, with how the Sooners have played since conference play began, bouncing back was easy for them.

Their first opponent was an Oral Roberts team that the Sooners had already faced this season, splitting a pair of midweek games.

Kyson Witherspoon got the start. Oklahoma opted to save Braden Davis in case the Sooners were in the loser’s bracket or had to face Duke.

Witherspoon escaped early danger, stranding the bases loaded to end the first. Oklahoma immediately opened things up with a triple from centerfielder John Spikerman and a Bryce Madron sac fly. Madron returned to the starting lineup after sitting out the Big 12 tournament to rest an injury from the end of the regular season.

 

With the Sooners up 1-0, they never looked back. Witherspoon worked around two runners in the second and third innings to hold the Golden Eagles scoreless.

In the bottom of the third, Madron let the rest of the home crowd know he was healthy as he blasted a two-run home run to right field, giving OU a 3-0 lead.

After some clean innings from Witherspoon, Oklahoma opened the game up on an Easton Carmichael three-run home run to make it a 6-0 game.

Witherspoon finished his day tossing six innings of shutout ball. He struck out nine batters and sat down the last ten batters he faced. Simply, it was a dazzling performance in his NCAA Tournament debut.

Oklahoma continued to pile on runs the rest of the way. Scott Mudler hit a solo home run and had a two-run single. Spikerman had a two-run single. And Jackson Nicklaus added an RBI single himself.

Carter Campbell finished the pitching from the seventh inning onward and kept things spotless, giving up no runs to complete a dominant performance from the Sooners.

It’s hard to imagine Skip Johnson drawing up a more perfect opening game. Minimal pitchers were used, and the team showed tremendous discipline at the plate, which made Oral Roberts pay for mistakes in the form of 17 hits.

Oklahoma will advance to the winner’s bracket and will face UConn tomorrow at 8 p.m. local time under the lights. The winner of that game will be just one win away from clinching a spot in the Super Regionals.

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Sooners earn No. 9 national seed, host regional round of the NCAA Tournament

Oklahoma set to host regional, welcoming Duke, UConn, and Oral Roberts to Norman.

The field is set, and Skip Johnson’s Oklahoma Sooners baseball team knows exactly who it will be playing when the NCAA Tournament opens on Friday, May 31.

On Sunday afternoon, regional host sites were announced. The Sooners were chosen to host, indicating they were at least one of the top 16 seeds in the nation. On Monday, they found out who they would play this weekend.

The Sooners missed the cut as a national seed, finishing No. 9 instead of landing a projected top eight seed. If the Sooners had finished eighth, they would have been able to host a Super Regional should they advance. The loss to Oklahoma State in the Big 12 tournament championship game likely made the difference.

Oklahoma will have no easy task trying to advance, as the Sooners are set to host Duke, Oral Roberts, and the UConn Huskies.

The Duke Blue Devils are the two-seed in the region and are fresh off of winning their second ACC Tournament.

UConn is the third seed in this region and hails from the Big East. They won the Big East regular season and are in the NCAA Tournament for the sixth straight season.

Oklahoma’s first opponent in the tournament is Oral Roberts, the Summit League champions. Oklahoma played Oral Roberts in March and earned a seven-inning run-rule shutout, winning 10-0. Game time is set for Friday at 1 p.m. on ESPN+.

Oklahoma’s region isn’t a cakewalk, but there’s plenty of reason to believe that the Sooners can come out on top with their improved pitching, which failed them in last year’s tournament, and an offense that is much more dynamic than last year.

If the Sooners advance, they will take on the winner of the Florida State Regional, which consists of the Seminoles, Alabama, Stetson, and the Big 12’s UCF.

Oklahoma also hopes their All-Big 12 Second Team outfielder Bryce Madron can go. He sat out the entire Big 12 tournament to rest an injury he sustained in the final regular season series against Cincinnati.

Otherwise, Oklahoma will be in excellent health as it prepares to play this weekend.

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Complete game shutout from Braden Davis leads Sooners to Big 12 tournament win over TCU

Baden Davis put on a dominant display to lead the Oklahoma Sooners to a 4-0 win against the TCU Horned Frogs in the Big 12 Tournament.

The Big 12’s regular-season champions flexed their muscles in their Big 12 tournament opener. Oklahoma shut out the TCU Horned Frogs 4-0 on Wednesday afternoon behind a masterful pitching performance by Braden Davis.

Davis was locked in from the start. After giving up a one-out double to TCU’s Sam Myers in the top of the first, Davis would sit down the next 10 TCU batters. He generated some excellent swing and misses while also pitching to contact. The defense behind him made some outstanding plays in the field, like this catch by left fielder Kendall Pettis that helped minimize the first inning double.

While Davis locked down the Horned Frogs’ offense, the Sooners had to be patient against TCU starter and Big 12 Pitcher of the Year Peyton Tolle.

The Sooners finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth. A one-out walk by Michael Snyder was followed by an Anthony Mackenzie single. Jackson Nicklaus doubled to bring in Snyder to put Oklahoma up 1-0. Then with two outs in the inning, Pettis came through with a single to add to the Sooners lead and make it 2-0.

With a lead, Davis continued to deal.

Even though Oklahoma’s best power hitter, Bryce Madron, wasn’t playing, others picked up the slugging in his absence. Mackenzie homered to left center and Nicklaus followed that up with a homer of his own to give Oklahoma a 4-0 lead and chase Tolle right out of the game.

Those two runs would be the final nail in the coffin as Davis cruised to the finished line for the complete game shutout. He gave up just four hits and allowed zero walks. Davis also fanned nine TCU Horned Frogs in the effort.

He needed a career-high 120 pitches, but his Herculean effort puts Skip Johnson and the rest of the Oklahoma coaching staff in a favorable position to mix and match arms in Thursday’s game against the Kansas Jayhawks with no one extending themselves on Wednesday.

The Sooners and Jayhawks both won their first games of the tournament and will battle for a spot in the Big 12 semifinals on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. The Big 12 foes did not play in the regular season.

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Oklahoma’s Bryce Madron named Big 12 Player of the Week

Oklahoma’s Bryce Madron named Big 12 player of the week as he powered Oklahoma to a 4-1 week.

If you’ve been following Oklahoma baseball this season, it’s been an up-and-down roller coaster. Oklahoma is peaking at an extraordinary level and is fresh off its most impressive week of the season.

They went 4-1 and completed a three-game road sweep of a top-25 TCU squad. Oklahoma is hitting, defending, and pitching at a high level right now, and it’s impressive to watch.

Last week, senior leader and outfielder Bryce Madron led the team’s offensive surge. His efforts earned him the Big 12 Player of the Week award. This is the second consecutive week an Oklahoma player has earned player of the week honors. The week before, Easton Carmichael was named Co-Big 12 Player of the Week.

Madron was in a groove, hitting .438 (7-for-16) with a home run and four RBIs. He also showcased elite plate discipline, drawing four walks. When he got on the bases, he was a problem for the opposition, as he stole three bases and came around to score five times.

This is nothing new for Madron, Oklahoma’s best offensive weapon last year, and is undoubtedly trending that way this year. He is hitting .353 on the season with two homers, eight extra-base hits, and 15 RBIs. He leads the team with 26 runs scored, 17 walks drawn, and a .483 on-base percentage. Simply put, he’s the most complete offensive player on the team.

Oklahoma will look to keep the good times rolling when they seek revenge on No.19 Dallas Baptist for a late February loss in a midweek tilt on Tuesday evening.

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Rough 7th inning dooms Sooners in midweek clash against Dallas Baptist; Sooners lose 11-7

Oklahoma looses midweek matchup against Dallas Baptist 11-7.

Oklahoma was back in action on the diamond Tuesday evening as they made another trip to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. This weekend, the Sooners took two of three games in Arlington. They beat a top 10-ranked Tennessee team on Saturday night and followed that up with a walk-off 7-6 win against their old Big 12 foes, the Nebraska Cornhuskers, on Sunday afternoon.

On Tuesday, they traveled to Dallas to take on the preseason Conference USA team to beat, the Dallas Baptist Patriots.

Nick Wilson started for the Patriots, while redshirt senior Grant Stevens started the contest on the mound for the Sooners. After four seasons at the University of the Pacific, Stevens transferred to OU.

A walk by centerfielder John Spikerman and a wild pitch immediately moved him into scoring position to start the game. Bryce Madron knocked him in with an opposite-field single, and the Sooners were off and running.

Dallas Baptist was not impressed and responded with two runs of their own by way of a Miguel Santos two-run home run. Jackson Nicklaus immediately led the top half of the second off with his first home run of the season—one of two homers on the night.

Things would remain tied until the bottom of the fourth when DBU broke through with three runs on four hits to make the score 5-2. The inning would prove to be Stevens’ last. In his first start as a Sooner, Stevens pitched four innings and gave up five earned runs on seven hits and two walks, while recording five strikeouts.

Will Carsten would take over the fifth for Oklahoma, and the Patriots tacked on another run to make the score 6-2. The Sooners would finally respond with a few runs in the top of the sixth. After Michael Snyder reached third on a triple, he scored on a wild pitch to the deficit to three runs. The Sooners then loaded the bases on a walk, single, and a hit by pitch, but John Spikerman struck out on a 3-2 count.

DBU left fielder Ethan Mann hit a solo home run to push the Patriots’ lead to 7-4.

In the Sooners half of the inning, Easton Carmichael singled to right field with one out in the top of the 7th. After a Rocco Garza-Gongora groundout moved Carmichael to second, Michael Snyder hit a towering home run to bring the Sooners within one run. Jackson Nicklaus hit his second homer of the night two pitches later to tie the game at seven.

From there, things went downhill as Jace Miner recorded two outs and allowing just one walk in the bottom of the seventh. However, Skip Johnson pulled Miner in favor of Jacob Gholston, who couldn’t find the strike zone. A wild pitch advanced the runner from first to second, and then Gholston walked the batter.

Johnson would replace Gholston with righty Dylan Crooks, who gave up an infield single to load the bases. DBU’s Nathan Humphreys drove a 1-0 fastball from Crooks deep into the Dallas night for a grand slam to put DBU up for good, 11-7.

The Sooners couldn’t mount a comeback, as DBU remained undefeated at 4-0, and the Sooners fell to 2-2.

Bryce Madron led the way with three hits in five at-bats, while Michael Snyder’s three RBIs led the way for the Sooners. Humphreys’ five runs batted in led the way for the Patriots.

Oklahoma will head back to Norman for their first home series of the season as they host Wright State for a four-game series this weekend at L. Dale Mitchell Park.

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