Tag: John Spikerman

Oklahoma OF John Spikerman drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies

Oklahoma’s John Spikerman selected 100th overall in 2024 MLB Draft.

While the SEC Media Days dominate the new cycles in the Oklahoma sports community this week, Major League Baseball is also having its 2024 draft, and a Sooner is making his way to the MLB.

Despite Oklahoma’s season ending sooner than expected, it’s important to note that the team needed more talent. Their journey may have been cut short, but it’s a testament to the potential and skill that one of their key players saw his name go off the board on Monday afternoon.

Over the last three seasons, John Spikerman, Oklahoma’s switch-hitting starting centerfielder, has been a shining star. His journey from the Sooners to the Phillies, where he was selected with the 100th overall pick, is a testament to his hard work and the pride of the Oklahoma sports community.

Spikerman has been a mainstay in the Sooners baseball program since he was a spark on the OU baseball team that reached the championship series against Ole Miss in 2022.

Spikerman’s exceptional speed and defensive skills are exciting and intriguing. His ability to steal 50 bases in three seasons in Norman, combined with his reputation as a plus defender, could make him a long-term player in the MLB. The only surprise was the Phillies’ announcement of his pick as a shortstop.

This past season, Spikerman made 42 appearances, including 40 starts. He recorded a career-high .367 batting average while racking up 32 RBIs and three home runs. In the field, Spikerman notched 86 putouts and a .978 fielding percentage. His injury history has kept him from playing as much as he and Skip Johnson might have liked, but the talent is evident in Spikerman.

Spikerman hasn’t played in the infield since high school. Do the Phillies plan on moving him to shortstop in the minors? He doesn’t have the arm or bat most MLB scouts covet from the shortstop position, but he has the athleticism to be a terrific defender. In the long term, it’s possible to see Spikerman play a utility role in which he can play infield and outfield while providing excellent speed to cause havoc at the topic or bottom of lineups as a table setter.

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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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Oklahoma Sooners complete comeback to beat Kansas in walk-off fashion

Oklahoma completes dramatic comeback to beat Kansas and advance to Big 12 Title game.

Friday in Arlington was a blast for those who donned the Crimson and Cream. Oklahoma, one of the nation’s best baseball teams, entered the day as the Big 12’s number one seed, looking for a win to reach its final Big 12 Tournament championship game.

They had to wait for their opponent as Kansas and TCU, teams OU defeated earlier in the week, duked it out in an elimination game. Kansas jumped out to a 9-0 lead after just the first inning before TCU roared back to tie the game at 9. The Jayhawks won 10-9, setting up one-half of the Big 12 semifinals.

Oklahoma started the game poorly, and Kansas looked like a team that had already been awake for three hours. Brendan Girton started the game for the Sooners, but he didn’t have it out there. He only completed one inning, allowing four runs in the first and two in the second before being lifted for Grant Stevens. He walked two batters as well.

With the Sooners in a 6-0 hole, Stevens came in and immediately cemented himself as one of the stars of the day. He twirled 5.1 scoreless innings with six strike outs, scattering seven hits and no walks.

The Sooners bats began to come to life in the fifth inning. Backup catcher Scott Mudler singled to start the fifth for the Sooners. With two outs in the frame, freshman shortstop Jaxon Willits, smoked a first-pitch slider from Kansas’ J’Briell Easley to right field for a two-run homer.

Easley had dominated the Sooners to that point, amassing double-digit strikeouts. Easton Carmichael singled and forced Kansas to swap Easley for Kolby Dougan. Carmichael immediately stole second before Michael Snyder and Anthony Mackenzie drew walks to load the bases.

Jackson Nicklaus, another one of the stars of the day, delivered a two-out knock to right, scoring two and closing the gap to 6-4. Lefty Gavin Brasosky was brought in to face Kendall Pettis, who then delivered another two-out hit, scoring Mackenzie. Nicklaus was thrown out trying to reach third base to end the inning. But the Sooners were down just 6-5 heading to the sixth.

Stevens shut down the Jayhawks in his last full inning of work, and Oklahoma got right back to work trying to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth.

A Jason Walk single and two wild pitches put Oklahoma in a prime spot. Centerfielder John Spikerman earned a walk before another big hit by Jaxon Willits tied the game. This time, it was a double to right center field. Oklahoma failed to scratch another run across despite runners on second and third with less than two outs.

Carson Atwood, James Hitt, Jett Lode, and Ryan Lambert continued Stevens’ work and put up zeros for the remainder of the game, leading to the ninth and final frame.

Mackenzie singled to right field for his second hit of the game, and Jackson Nicklaus wrote his name in Oklahoma baseball history. Facing a 2-2 count, Nicklaus sent Oklahoma to the Big 12 championship series with a loud blast of a home run to right field.

Nicklaus went 2-for-5 with four RBI. Willits was 2-for-4 with a walk and three RBIs. Carmichael and Walk each had two hits in the win.

After an awful first inning, Oklahoma’s bullpen kept the Jayhawks off the board for the remainder of the game.

It was a strong performance and provides the opportunity for the tournament’s No. 1 seed to win the title for the first time since 2014. Oklahoma still has a chance to lock up a top eight seed, which would give OU the right to host both regional and super regional rounds of the NCAA tournament.

The championship game will take place Saturday at 6:00 p.m. CT at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas. The game can be seen on ESPNU.

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Oklahoma Sooners beat Kansas Jayhawks to advance in Big 12 Tournament

The Oklahoma Sooners overcame seven errors to beat the Kansas Jayhawks 7-5 to advance in the Big 12 tournament.

It was an uncharacterstic performance for the Oklahoma Sooners defensively, racking up seven errors against the Kansas Jayhawks. But they found a way to overcome the miscues to pick up the 7-5 win over the Jayhawks.

The Sooners got on the board in the first inning, taking advantage of a Kansas error. John Spikerman led off the game with a single and advanced to second on an errant pickoff attempt. Spikerman moved to third on Jaxon Willits groundout fielder’s choice and then came in for the first run of the game on Easton Carmichael’s sacrifice fly.

In the second inning, the Sooners committed three errors and allowed the Jayhawks to take advantage of a leadoff double to push three runs across the plate against Kyson Witherspoon.

The Sooners responded on an RBI single from Scott Mudler to get one of the runs back in the bottom of the second to make it 3-2. However, Kansas picked up another run in the top of the third off of another pair of errors from the Sooners.

But the Sooners put together a three-run inning in the bottom of the fourth, powered by a Jaxon Willits two-run homer to take a 5-4 lead.

Carter Campbell looked really good in his three innings of relief, allowing just one walk in his 33-pitch outing.

Oklahoma tacked on a couple of runs in the seventh to provide a little insurance late. Snyder had his second RBI of the game and Jackson Nicklaus continued his extra base hit spree with a triple to put the Sooners up 7-4.

Another error in the top of the ninth gave Kansas an opportunity, but they could only muster one run on a sacrifice fly against Malachi Witherspoon, who earned the save to close out the win.

It was an ugly win for the Sooners, but it was a win nonetheless and keeps them on track to contend for a top-8 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

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Oklahoma Sooners to be without star outfielder for 4-6 weeks

The Sooners will be down one of their best players for about a month due to an injury.

Just before the Oklahoma Sooners took on Dallas Baptist they found out some devastating news. The Sooners would be without their star outfielder, [autotag]John Spikerman[/autotag].

Spikerman, now a junior, has been a mainstay in the lineup since his freshman season in 2022. But the voice of the Sooners, Toby Rowland, announced he will be having hamate surgery and will be out 4-6 weeks to recover. This surgery is to fix an injury in his hand but he could be able to pinch run while the injury heals.

Spikerman currently leads the Sooners in batting average at .394. He also has one of the better on-base percentages on the team at .446. The Sooners are definitely going to miss his presence on the field and in the lineup but they are also going to miss his leadership.

He was someone who had been to a College World Series. He had won the Big 12 tournament. This year was shaping up to be a career year for him as well.

If there are any positives from this it’s that Oklahoma is very deep in the outfield so they’ll have plenty of people to try to replace him but it’s always hard to replace your top hitters and one of the leaders of the team.

The Sooners are back in action this weekend against the [autotag]West Virginia Mountaineers[/autotag].

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How to watch, key players for the Oklahoma Sooners in the Las Vegas College Baseball Classic

The Sooners baseball team are back in action in the Las Vegas College Baseball Classic. Here is how you can watch.

The Oklahoma Sooners bounced back from an early week loss to Dallas Baptist last week with a 3-1 series win over Wright State. That brings their record to 5-3.

Now they head to Las Vegas for the Las Vegas College Baseball Classic. This weekend they’ll take on three teams, Pittsburgh, California and Ohio State.

If the Sooners can go 2-1 this week that would be huge for early in the season but it won’t be easy. Pittsburgh is 6-1 on the year. Cal is 7-1 on the year and Ohio State is the worst one at 4-4. Both Pittsburgh and Cal are hoping big weeks will get them in the top 25 rankings.

But let’s take a look at how you can watch each game and the key players for each team.