Behind fantastic starting pitching, Sooners are on the move and not going away
I think I’ve figured it out.
If I’m right, you heard it here first.
Oklahoma will not just earn respect as an SEC baseball program as it did a year ago, nearly breaking even in the conference before heading to the Chapel Hill Regional as a No. 2 seed.
No.
The Sooners, in their ninth season under the stewardship of coach Skip Johnson, will be a perennial upper division SEC program, a constant presence in the game’s various top 25s — OU’s as high as No. 10 by Baseball America right now — and, mark it down, a regular regional and super regional host.
Do you know why?
Remember what gets out great hitting?
Everybody knows Johnson’s a pitcher whisperer, his most prized pupil Clayton Kershaw, a certain first-ballot hall-of-famer making one last go of it with Team USA at the ongoing World Baseball Classic.
And, right now, that’s being turned up to new heights.
In the most recent baseball draft, one of Johnson’s pupils, Kyson Witherspoon, was selected 15th overall by the Boston Red Sox and another, Witherspoon’s twin brother, Malachi, went in the second round as the No. 62 pick to the Detroit Tigers.
On his latest roster, Johnson has another two starters who might go just as high, as well as a third starter who might, too. Yet, just a freshman, he may spend three seasons at OU first.
This is the dynamic:
So you want to become the best college pitcher you can, maximizing your first signing bonus along the way? Why wouldn’t you come to Oklahoma to play for Skip Johnson?
Another way to make OU’s pitching prowess clear?
Just one Sooner softball pitcher, Audrey Lowry, carries an ERA — 1.68 — in the seven-inning game better than any of Johnson’s three weekend starters in the nine-inning game, and not by much.
Saturday, it was L.J. Mercurious’ turn as OU squared off with Santa Clara, and it went a lot like Mercurious’ other three starts this season.
A junior transfer from UNLV, the 6-foot-2, 175-pound Mercurious tossed six shutout innings, allowed four hits, struck out six and walked none. His day required 83 pitches, 56 of them strikes.
His fourth start, Mercurious has won all four, striking out 34 over 23 1/3 innings. Opposing batters are hitting .118 against him and, allowing only one earned run, his ERA is a near-untraceable 0.39.
Striking out only six, you could make a case Saturday’s outing was Mercurious’ least electric since arrival.
Perhaps, but the one time he faced trouble, having given up a third-inning leadoff double to Andrew Rayment, he struck out the next two batters he faced, the first with an overpowering fastball and the second with a changeup Santa Clara’s left-handed hitters could not lay off, even as it fell out of the strike zone and off the plate away.
An 8-0 victory, it was OU’s fourth shutout because Johnson’s put together a pretty good bullpen, too.
Mercurious is not alone.
OU’s Friday starter — or, this week, its Thursday starter — Cam Johnson, ranks higher on the prospect lists than Mercurious.
Johnson came to Norman following his freshman season at LSU. After making 10 appearances and compiling a 5.57 ERA last season, he’s now flourishing under Johnson’s tutelage.
An imposing specimen at 6-6 and 256 pounds, the left-handed throwing Johnson is carrying a 2.11 ERA over 21 1/3 innings, striking out 32 and walking five.
Thursday, in the series opener, Johnson allowed no earned runs over 5 1/3 innings, striking out seven and walking two.
Freshman Cord Rager, out of Maypearl, Texas, should get the call on Sunday, hoping to improve his 1.80 ERA forged over 15 innings in which he’s struck out 19 and walked four.
Imposing, Rager’s another 6-6 lefty, coming in at 237 pounds.
Johnson must really love Rager on the mound.
Ranked the No. 1 first baseman and the No. 37 pitcher coming out of Texas by Perfect Game last spring, Rager’s yet to play any first base for the Sooners, nor approach the plate for his first collegiate at-bat.
OU, 13-2 and soon to enter SEC play, will be taking on 20th-ranked Texas A&M (14-1), second-ranked LSU (12-4) and third-ranked Texas (14-0) the first three weekends of the conference season.
The Sooners will soon know where they really stand.
Still, mark it down.
It’s an exciting time and OU’s making its move.
It has the pitching.
Sooner and later.