Tag: Oklahoma Baseball

Brett Squires named Big 12 co-Player of the Week

Redshirt sophomore Brett Squires shared Big 12 Player of the Week honors after his impressive performance against West Virginia.

For the fifth time this season, Oklahoma Baseball was awarded a Big 12 weekly honor with infielder/outfielder Brett Squires selected as the conference’s co-Player of the Week, sharing the honor with Texas Christian University’s Luke Boyers. This is the second time in his collegiate career that Squires has won a weekly award from the Big 12.

The redshirt sophomore had a good series against West Virginia, going 6 for 8 with seven RBIs, including a home run in the rubber match of the series, a 17-7 win for the Oklahoma Sooners.

No. 12 has appeared in 28 games in 2022, hitting .338 with four home runs and 19 RBIs on the season. Squires is in his second season with OU after transferring from Texas JUCO McLennan College.

After winning the award, Squires went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts against Wichita State in an 18-0 loss on the road.

The Sooners are going to need their best from Squires and everyone else in the lineup going into their final series of the season against No. 5 Texas Tech Red Raiders. The three-game series begins on Thursday night. Tech just swept the Oklahoma State Cowboys in their three-game series last week in Stillwater.

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Oklahoma Baseball suffers 18-0 loss to Wichita State

OU Baseball never got it going on the road against Wichita State as they lost 18-0

Nothing went right for the Oklahoma Sooners in Wichita on Monday night as they lost 18-0 to the Wichita State Shockers.

OU pitching gave up 18 hits while the OU bats collected just one on a Kendall Pettis double. Again, the Sooners had one hit in the entire game. The last time these two teams played, things went a bit better for the crimson and cream.

Aaron Calhoun started on the mound and didn’t last long with the Shockers doing a lot of damage early in the third inning. Calhoun was credited with the loss, getting  the first decision of his NCAA career. His record now stands at 0-1.

The pitching woes that have plagued the Sooners all season long were on full display tonight. Eight pitchers were used with half of them lasting less than an inning. OU pitching combined for nine walks and only six strikeouts.

This was Oklahoma’s final game before their last series of the season against No. 5 Texas Tech. Texas Tech is also one game ahead of OU and Oklahoma State in the Big 12 baseball standings.

The series will be in Lubbock and starts on Thursday, May 20. The Sooners have a lot of work to do in the next few days if they want a better result against the Red Raiders than the one they had tonight.

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Oklahoma Baseball rides 7-run 6th inning to 9-5 win over Wichita State

The Sooners exploded for a seven-run 6th inning for a 9-5 victory against Wichita State before returning to Big 12 play.

The Oklahoma Sooners overcame an early deficit against the Wichita State Shockers on Tuesday night to improve to 22-13. The Sooners’ bats really came alive in the bottom of the sixth, with seven runs on four hits to come away with the 9-5 win.

The Sooners were living dangerously on the basepaths, stealing five bases in the bottom of the sixth.

Braden Carmichael had a rough start, allowing two runs through two innings. Carmichael had thrown only 36 pitches before being pulled. The Sooners would end up using nine pitchers against the Shockers in Tuesday night’s win.

The offense for the Sooners has been there all season, but with conference series on the horizon, the pitching staff needs to be better.

No home runs for the Sooners in this affair, but the lineup made up for it by capitalizing on Wichita State’s errors.

The Shockers had four errors in the game. The Sooners would make them pay for it all night with baserunners moving forward and tacking on one unearned run on the night. They would also add a run off a wild pitch in the big sixth inning.

Diego Muniz led the way with three RBIs and Tanner Tredaway had two hits from the top of the order.

This was OU’s final tune-up before returning to Big 12 play with a series in Lawrence against the Kansas Jayhawks. Oklahoma is currently sixth in the Big 12 and Kansas is dead last. A good series here could get OU back in business in the Big 12 conference.

The Sooners’ series against the Jayhawks begins Friday night at 6 p.m.

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Oklahoma Sooners Baseball drops Globe Life Field rubber match to Texas Longhorns 12-8

Oklahoma Baseball lost the rubber match Sunday against the No. 8 Texas Longhorns at Globe Life Field in Arlington.

Oklahoma Baseball had a less than ideal weekend against the no. 8 Longhorns at Globe Life Field in Arlington. Texas is a stiff opponent, but losing two of three to the Longhorns always stings.

Over 6000 fans came to see what was a rubber match in the final game of the three-game series between Oklahoma and Texas on Sunday. The Sooners shut out Texas for the first five innings and led 7-1 going into the top of the seventh. Things were looking good.

Then Dylan Campbell stepped up to the plate with two men on base.

It was his second home run of the series and got the Longhorns right back into the game. Murphy Stehly would follow this up with a three-run homer, and the Longhorns would finish the seventh down 7-1.

Getting one win out of the no. 8 team in the country isn’t an awful result, but the Sooners could’ve won the series if they had a better showing in the later innings.

OU is in sixth place in the Big 12, ahead of Baylor, Kansas State, and Kansas. They’re now 3-3 in conference play.

Let’s look at the positives from Sunday’s game: Redshirt Sophomore [autotag]Chazz Martinez[/autotag] struck out seven and allowed one earned run through 5.1 innings.

[autotag]Peyton Graham[/autotag] had a solid 4 RBI day headlined with a three-run homer. The young shortstop is expected to be drafted in July.

 

It doesn’t get any easier for OU Baseball as they have a series against No. 6 Oklahoma State starting on Friday in Stillwater. Before then, they’ll have a tune-up game against Oral Roberts on Tuesday.

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Oklahoma baseball, softball Big 12 conference schedules released

The 2022 Oklahoma baseball and softball conference schedules have been released. Here’s a look at the Big 12 slates for both teams.

Oklahoma released its respective baseball and softball conference schedules for the upcoming 2022 seasons.

Skip Johnson is entering his fifth season as OU head baseball coach and looking to send the Sooners back into the postseason for the first time since 2018 when Oklahoma advanced to the Tallahassee Regional finals.

The Sooners start conference play with back-to-back home series against Baylor and Texas. After that, the Sooners play in the Bedlam series before traveling to Lawrence, Kan., to take on the Jayhawks.

Then, it’s a home series against Kansas State and West Virginia sandwiched around a road series at TCU. The Sooners close the Big 12 conference schedule with a series at Texas Tech.

Oklahoma softball will be looking to defend the program’s fifth national championship and their reign as the nine-time defending Big 12 champions.

The Sooners open conference play at Marita Hynes Field by hosting the Baylor Bears in a series from March 25-27. Then, OU has a pair of road series at Texas Tech and Texas.

After those road series, Oklahoma returns home for a series versus Iowa State before visiting Kansas in a series to close the month of April. OU closes its conference schedule by hosting fellow 2021 Women’s College World Series participant Oklahoma State in Bedlam.

Oklahoma softball has won 59 of its past 60 conference games and haven’t lost a conference series since 2011. The 2022 team returns 2021 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Jocelyn Alo, along with four other All-Americans in Jayda Coleman, 2021 NFCA Freshman of the Year Tiare Jennings, Kinzie Hansen and Grace Lyons.

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Oklahoma 1B Tyler Hardman named first team All-American

Oklahoma 1B Tyler Hardman was named a first team All-American on Wednesday by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

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Oklahoma baseball had a bit of a disappointing season in 2021 but that was not by the fault of first baseman Tyler Hardman who had a monstrous year from start to finish.

Hardman held a batting average north of .400 for the bulk of the year only dipping down to .397 to end the campaign in the final few weeks of the season. In addition to the remarkable consistency in getting on base with hits, he also drove 12 home runs over the fence and accumulated 49 RBIs.

For his efforts, Hardman was named a first team All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association on Wednesday. He is the 18th Sooner in program history to be an All-American and the first since Sheldon Neuse in 2016.

It was a truly special year for Hardman from wire-to-wire. The most memorable stretch came when he reached base in a truly astonishing 16 (!) consecutive plate appearances from Mar. 9 to Mar. 15. In an offense that was quite strong throughout the year, Hardman was the leader and most steady bat on the squad.

Hardman’s 2021 season cemented him in the Oklahoma history books in a variety of categories as he became just the 43rd player in program history to cross the threshold of 100 career hits, RBIs and runs scored. His 24 career home runs is good enough for 18th-most all-time in Sooners history as well.

Oklahoma gets eliminated from Big 12 tournament at the hands of Texas 4-1

Oklahoma baseball’s season likely came to an end on Thursday falling to Texas 4-1 to get eliminated from the Big 12 tournament.

Oklahoma baseball returned to action at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark on Thursday afternoon with its season firmly on the line in an elimination game at the Big 12 tournament against No. 1 seed Texas.

Likely needing a couple of wins this week to even hope to gain an at-large bid to next week’s NCAA Tournament, the Sooners turned to left-hander Braden Carmichael (6-3) to try and keep the season alive for at least one more day. He wasn’t terrible, but he struggled with command, walking five batters in less than three innings of work and sending Oklahoma to a 4-1 loss.

The Longhorns broke on top in the bottom of the second inning on catcher Silas Ardoin’s sacrifice fly. Oklahoma, however, responded in the top half of the third when second baseman Conor McKenna came through with a two-out RBI single.

Texas re-took the lead in the bottom half on an RBI double by right fielder Douglas Hodo that ended Carmichael’s day.

Wyatt Olds relieved him in the third and worked a sensational five innings, allowing two runs and striking out 11.

The first run allowed by Olds came in the fourth on an RBI single by first baseman Zach Zubia that made the score 3-1. The second came in the eighth when Sooners right-hander Luke Taggart’s wild pitch gave the Longhorns an insurance run they didn’t need.

The loss by the Sooners (27-28) likely closes the book on a very odd season during which they showed repeated glimmers of potential. The Sooners kept giving indications they would turn the corner, but never did. The problems at the beginning of the year remained all the way through Thursday’s game.

A very interesting offseason awaits. Oklahoma must reshape the roster into a contender. There is obvious talent on the squad, and it may not be that far away from winning. But the the pitching staff, especially, needs help.

Sooners Wire will continue to provide updates on the Sooners throughout the offseason as players make decisions on their careers and new blood gets introduced into the program.

When, where, how to watch and pitching matchup for Bedlam baseball in the Big 12 tournament

Everything you need to know for Oklahoma baseball’s Bedlam Big 12 tournament opener against Oklahoma State on Wednesday night.

No. 5 seed Oklahoma (27-26, 11-13) and No. 4 seed Oklahoma State (32-16-1, 12-12) are meeting once again for a sixth time on Wednesday night in the opening round of the 2021 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship.

The Sooners have quietly been playing very steady baseball in the past month, suddenly finding themselves back on the NCAA Tournament bubble – something that seemed out of the question only even a few weeks ago. With a couple of wins this week in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma could very well find themselves gaining an at-large berth on Selection Monday.

The Cowboys, meanwhile, look to be comfortably in the tournament but are still certainly looking to improve their positioning with a good week here. They closed out the regular season taking eight of their last ten games – including each of the last two collisions with the Sooners.

For those unfamiliar with the Big 12 tournament format, this is NOT an elimination game with both teams having games on Thursday regardless of what happens in this matchup. But, like with any double elimination tournament, getting a win in the first game is essentially a must-have to want to go on a deep run.

The winner of this game will face the winner of No. 1 seed Texas vs No. 8 seed West Virginia on Thursday night at approximately 7:30 p.m. CT. The loser of this game will face the loser of the Longhorns and the Mountaineers at approximately 12:30 p.m. CT.

For this sixth Bedlam baseball clash in the first round of the Big 12 tournament, here is everything you need to know:

WHEN:   7:30 p.m. CT (Approximate)

WHERE:   Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark)

HOW TO WATCH:   Big 12 Now on ESPN+ (Clay Matvick & Mike Rooney)

HOW TO LISTEN:   Sooner Sports Radio Network – SportsTalk 99.3 FM/1400 AM KREF; Tune In Radio App; Sportstalk1400.com (Toby Rowland & George Frazier)

When, where, how to watch Oklahoma baseball’s series against Baylor

Everything you need to know for Oklahoma baseball’s final series of the regular season against Baylor starting Thursday night.

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Oklahoma (25-25, 9-12) is finishing up the regular season this week on the road in Waco against conference foe Baylor (30-16, 10-11) in a three-game set opening up Thursday night. Continue reading “When, where, how to watch Oklahoma baseball’s series against Baylor”

Oklahoma run-ruled at home by No. 7/8 Texas Tech, drops series

Oklahoma baseball was run-ruled at home by No. 7/8 Texas Tech on Sunday to drop the series and fall to .500 on the year at 25-25.

Oklahoma baseball finished up their final home series of the year on Sunday with the rubber match of their three game set with No. 7/8 Texas Tech.

Unfortunately for the Sooners, their pitching woes against the Red Raiders continued in a major way allowing 13 runs to come across the plate to help Texas Tech win the game on run-rule in just seven innings.

Luke Taggart (1-6) was given the start and he, like many other Oklahoma pitchers this weekend, had immense struggles allowing four earned runs and only working into the second inning. Carson Carter, Wyatt Olds and Jake Bennett would team up to finish the game after Taggart.

The Red Raiders were held scoreless by Taggart in the first inning but changed that quickly in the second striking for six runs on three home runs. The Sooners would get one of the runs back in the bottom of the third on an RBI hit from right fielder Jace Bohrofen to have the score sitting at 6-1 Texas Tech after three.

Tech would strike for five more runs in the fourth inning on two more long balls off of Carter. Olds would then allow a couple more runs to cross in the sixth to have the Red Raiders lead balloon out to 13-1.

Oklahoma would strike for a run in the bottom of the seventh with shortstop Brandon Zaragoza being hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, but weren’t able to add on any more to try and avoid the run-rule. The loss drops the Sooners back down to .500 at 25-25 on the season and 9-12 in conference play.

This series was always going to be an immense challenge for Skip Johnson’s club given what Texas Tech can do offensively as a true national title contender. All in all, Friday’s win was very important but it has to still be disappointing to have the last two games of the set be so lopsided.

Oklahoma will now hit the road for the final week of the season beginning a three-game series against Baylor in Waco starting on Thursday night.