Tag: Dakota Harris

Oklahoma Sooners absent from preseason baseball Coaches Poll

Oklahoma Baseball absent from initial preseason USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll.

Baseball is almost here for Skip Johnson’s crew. As he gets ready to coach his sixth year as the head man in charge of the Oklahoma Sooners, he will do so with his squad unranked to start the season.

The USA TODAY Sports baseball coaches poll was released on Tuesday, and Oklahoma is noticeably absent from the mix. The Sooners weren’t even receiving votes.

Wake Forest opens the season at No. 1 with a loaded roster headlined by first baseman Nick Kurtz, a projected top 10 pick in June’s 2024 MLB Draft.

TCU, Texas, and Texas Tech are the only three Big 12 schools in the initial top 25. Kansas State is receiving the most votes of anyone not in the top 25. With a hot start, the Wildcats are poised to enter the mix early.

Oklahoma will look to return to the NCAA Tournament after they were ousted by the No.12 team in the preseason poll, East Carolina, to end their 2023 season.

The St. Louis Cardinals drafted shortstop Dakota Harris in the 11th round of the 2023 MLB Draft and he will be missed. Harris started 46 games last year and led the Sooners with a .328 batting average and clubbed seven home runs, 12 doubles, and 48 RBIs. He also scored 27 runs, drew 19 walks, and was 6 for 9 in stolen bases while posting a .516 slugging percentage and a .403 OBP.

Pitching was a significant problem for Oklahoma last year. Skip Johnson and his staff went into the transfer portal to rectify it. They added multiple talented arms from programs across the country, headlined by redshirt freshman Austin Henry, who has the talent to be a weekend starter and future MLB draft pick.

Oklahoma will start its season on February 16 in Arlington, Texas, against Oregon. That weekend, they’ll also play No. 8 Tennessee and Nebraska as part of the Shriners Children’s College Baseball Showdown.

A look at the full Coaches Poll powered by USA TODAY Sports:

Rank Team Points
1 Wake Forest 751 (15)
2 LSU 731 (11)
3 Florida 727 (5)
4 Arkansas 672
5 TCU 643
6 Vanderbilt 576
7 Oregon State 543
8 Tennessee 529
9 Clemson 484
10 Texas A&M 468
11 Virginia 431
12 East Carolina 391
13 Texas 381
14 Duke 351
15 North Carolina 342
16 North Carolina State 289
17 Alabama 197
18 UC-Santa Barbara 187
18 Coastal Carolina 187
20 Iowa 186
21 South Carolina 169
22 Texas Tech 157
23 Stanford 121
24 UCLA 80
25 Northeastern 71

Others Receiving Votes

Kansas State 65; UC Irvine 51; Oregon 42; Oklahoma State 41; Auburn 35; Southern Miss 21; Dallas Baptist 21; Troy 19; Ole Miss 16; Florida State 13; UNCW 12; Arizona 10; Oral Roberts 9; Indiana State 8; Connecticut 7; USC 6; Georgia 6; Campbell 6; Kentucky 5; West Virginia 4; Indiana 4; Georgia Tech 4; Maryland 3; Hawaii 3

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Bryant on Twitter @thatmanbryant.

Oklahoma’s season ends in Charlottesville in 8-5 loss to ECU

Oklahoma was eliminated by the ECU Pirates 8-5 in the NCAA Tournament to end their season Sunday afternoon.

Oklahoma’s 2023 baseball season has come to an end. Oklahoma lost on Sunday in its second elimination game of the Charlottesville Regional to the East Carolina Pirates, 8-5.

Oklahoma entered the day with a tall task ahead of it to advance to the super regionals. It needed to beat ECU and then regional hosts UVA twice. The first step was beating the Pirates, but Oklahoma failed Sunday just as it did when the programs faced off Friday.

ECU cashed in both games with timely hitting with runners in scoring position, whereas Oklahoma failed to convert across both games against ECU. On Sunday, left-hander James Hitt took the mound for the Sooners. Hitt entered the game 6-1 with a 4.50 ERA.

Oklahoma started great, loading the bases and threatening to put up a crooked number. Yet, the Sooners scored only one run, on a sacrifice fly from Anthony McKenzie in the bottom of the first.

Hitt retired the first six batters he faced. The top of the third inning proved much more problematic. ECU plated three runs on RBI singles from Jacob Starlin and Cam Clonch and a fielder’s choice.

Oklahoma produced nothing in response. The Sooners put two runners on with one out in the bottom of the third, but ECU got out of trouble with an inning-ending double play.

After loading the bases with no outs in the bottom of the fourth, Oklahoma lined into a double play. A John Spikerman groundout ended the inning with Oklahoma still down 3-1.

The top of the fifth is when ECU took control. ECU ripped off five runs to build an 8-1 lead. Two of ECU’s best bats, Carter Cunningham and Josh Starling, highlighted the eruptions with an RBI double and an RBI single, respectively.

Oklahoma did its best to answer in the bottom of the fifth. Shortstop Dakota Harris brought in a run with an RBI single. The Sooners made it 8-3 on a balk by Pirates pitcher Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman.

Easton Carmichael had an RBI double in the seventh, and Bryce Madron homered in the bottom of the ninth to draw the Sooners closes, but it wasn’t enough.

Harris and Madron each finished 3-for-4 at the plate for the Sooners, while Carmichael had two hits.

Oklahoma’s lack of success with runners in scoring position kept it from making this game more competitive. The two missed opportunities with the bases loaded and the third-inning double play were absolutely crushing.

ECU (47-18) takes on Virginia in the regional final. It must win twice to move on to the super regionals.

For Oklahoma (32-28), its season ends in Charlottesville. It heads back to Norman as a team that should be proud of all it accomplished. After a magical run to the 2022 College World Series in Omaha, the team was decimated by the MLB draft and graduations.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Bryant on Twitter @thatmanbryant.

5 takeaways from Oklahoma’s big series win over No. 13 TCU

Oklahoma wins a big-time series against conference foes TCU at home to start Big 12 play. Here are our five takeaways.

Oklahoma’s baseball team started the year in a rough spot as they struggled to gain consistency and dropped some games to opponents they knew they should have beaten. While the past is the past, all the Sooners could do moving forward is lock in as Big 12 play starts.

The Sooners started Big 12 play with a weekend series at L. Dale Mitchell Park. They hosted No.11/13 TCU, which was always expected to be a tight series. The three-game set lived up to the hype as Oklahoma lost Friday before doubling up with wins on Saturday and Sunday to take the series. A hard-fought effort brought Oklahoma’s record to 13-7 as they take Monday off before hosting Dallas Baptist midweek.

With the TCU series over, here are five takeaways from the weekend set.

Oklahoma ends two game slide, coasts to 7-2 win over Rider

Oklahoma gets out of a two-game slide with a 7-2 win on Saturday against the Rider Broncs.

While the expectations are sky-high for the Oklahoma Sooners following last season’s trip to the College World Series, the Sooners have struggled out of the gate.

Saturday was a step in the right direction, though. Oklahoma bounced back from two consecutive losses to Abilene Christian and Rider with a comfortable 7-2 win Saturday afternoon in Norman, Oklahoma.

Friday’s loss was highlighted by the Sooners leaving 14 runners on base. In a game they lost 6-3, just a bit more execution probably changes the outcome. The Sooners took that loss to heart and responded with seven runs Saturday afternoon.

One player who has been consistent of late, Anthony Mackenzie, kept his hot weekend going by posting a 4 for 5 day. He’s now 8 for 10 in his last two games.

Freshman catcher Easton Carmichael delivered in the biggest way with his three RBI day, setting the tone for the offense. An RBI ground out followed by a two-run single from Carmichael in the bottom of the third provided an immediate answer to Rider, who scored in the top half. The Sooners took the lead, and never looked back.

Shortstop Dakota Harris drove in Mackenzie in the bottom of the 4th to make it 4-1. Part of Mackenzie’s four-hit day included an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth. Oklahoma scored on a sac fly, and Carmichael delivered an RBI triple to push the Sooners out to a 7-1 lead.

The Sooners’ pitching staff was stout from beginning to end. Big right-handed junior Will Carsten started the game and gave Oklahoma a quality start by spreading out three hits, one run, four K’s, and one walk over five innings.

That set the stage for Carson Pierce, a right-handed pitcher originally from Edmond, Oklahoma. He went on to spin four innings of one-run ball himself. He also notched 3 strikeouts in the process.

Oklahoma coasted to a comfortable win Saturday and now sit at 3-5 on the season. In the win, Oklahoma stranded nine runners on base. That’s something they’ll want to improve as they get deeper into the schedule.

The Sooners will look to win their first series of the year on Sunday afternoon as they battle Rider in the rubber match of the series. First pitch is scheduled for 1 pm C.T. at L. Dale Mitchell Stadium.

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Vols’ commit Dakota Harris records two hits with Braves

Tennessee baseball commit Dakota Harris records two hits with Braves.

Tennessee commit Dakota Harris recorded two hits Monday for the Bourne Braves of the Cape Cod Baseball League.

Harris was 2-for-2 with two walks against the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox.

The 6-foot-1, 190-pound infielder played at Polk State College in Winter Haven, Florida during the 2022 season.

Harris recorded a .289 batting average, totaling two home runs, 48 RBIs, 44 runs, 68 hits, 12 doubles, five triples, 26 walks and 22 stolen bases in 57 games.

Cape Cod Baseball League

Founded in 1885, the Cape Cod Baseball League is a collegiate summer league located on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

Ten teams compete in the Cape Cod Baseball League, divided into East and West divisions.

In 1985, the Cape Cod Baseball League became the first collegiate summer league to use wood bats.

The 2022 season began June 12 and is slated to conclude Aug. 2. Playoffs are scheduled to begin Aug. 4.

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