In horrendous weather, coach Skip Johnson's Sooners fun to watch as they sweep Mountain Hawks
NORMAN — So Skip Johnson’s Sooner baseball team opened the season at L. Dale Mitchell Park in the cold and wind this weekend and despite the weather it couldn’t have gone much better.
Saturday’s 12-1 seven-inning run-rule romp, the finisher of a three-game set against Lehigh, the pride of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, meant the Sooners outscored the Mountain Hawks 36-7 and it’s hard to do much better than that.
“The pitching did good,” Johnson said. “We hit extremely well and we played good defense.”
Though not exactly a precursor of anything bound to happen come the ridiculous conference slate Oklahoma will face its first season in the SEC, where a million teams can be found in any one of many top 25s: No. 1 Texas A&M, No. 2 Tennessee, No. 4 LSU, No. 5 Arkansas, No. 10 Florida, No. 13 Georgia, No. 14 Vanderbilt, No. 17 Texas, No. 19 Mississippi State, for instance, in the NCBWA writers’ poll; and if it were carried out to, say, the top 35 receiving votes, No. 26 Kentucky, No. 30 OU, No. 31 Alabama and No. 33 Auburn as well.
Still, it was quite an opening, by any measure, and here’s a few.
• Saturday, the top of the order, centerfielder Jason Walk, shortstop Jaxon Willits and catcher Easton Carmichael, went 8 of 9 at the plate, drove in four and scored five runs, while Walk and Willits lashed doubles and Carmichael added an opposite field home run and triple.
For the series, the trio went 17 of 35, drove in 13, scored 15 runs, smashed three home runs, four doubles and a triple.
Carmichael alone has collected two home runs, three other extra-base hits, while driving in 16, hitting .545, slugging 1.455 and getting on base at a .571 clip.
Call it promising.
• On the mound, the starting trio of Kyson Witherspoon, Cam Johnson and Malachi Witherspoon delivered three straight quality starts, while the bullpen was golden: six pitchers, throwing nine innings, allowing five hits, one run, striking out 14 and walking one.
The Sooners haven’t settled on a closer, but Michael Catalino ought to be in the picture after throwing two innings in Friday’s opener, striking out four while facing the minimum six without giving up a hit.
• If you’re looking to watch a freshman develop, consider second baseman Kyle Branch, out of Lovejoy High School in Lucas, Texas, where he played shortstop.
Saturday, he made a crazy play maybe 20 feet behind second base, spearing a short hop has he ran farther and farther from first base to field it, yet getting rid of the ball so quickly he managed to nab Lehigh lead-off man Kyle Whitlinger on a play so close it had to be reversed to an out on replay.
“We knew we were getting that kind of defense and I think he’s going to be a pretty good offensive player the older he gets,” Johnson said.
Branch also collected a double on a Texas Leaguer that dropped in short right-center field because he was off and running as soon as the bat hit the ball, which is more than most big leaguers routinely offer.
• Though the pitching was strong all around, Malachi Witherspoon did something Saturday that should make him fun to watch the rest of the season.
His cruising fastball was coming in around 94 or 95 miles per hour, but to get the last out of the second inning, facing Mountain Hawk catcher Ian Wirtz, after delivering two straight sliders in the dirt that evened the count 2-2, he reached back for a fastball that came in at 98, freezing Wirtz with strike three.
“He had a little adrenaline going today,” Johnson said. “He calmed down, settled in and made some good pitches.”
• Something else never not cool to watch is a pitcher who hits for himself and Saturday that was lefty Gavyn Jones, who’s listed as an outfielder and pitcher on the roster.
A sophomore who came to Norman from McLennan (Texas) junior college in Waco, Jones tossed a scoreless inning before ripping a two-run single in the Sooners’ four-run seventh inning.
So cool.
Baseball sometimes gets a bad rap as slow and hard to watch, but Saturday, in horrendous weather that couldn’t keep 38 short of 1,000 from attending, the Sooners were fun, which is more than can be said about the basketball team that tipped off a little later Saturday afternoon across the street.
“The sense of urgency,” Johnson said, “to come out and play today was really good.”
A loaded conference will make it a difficult campaign, but Skip Johnson’s bunch appears to be offering much to like, follow and enjoy.
All well and good, but what about that Sooners men's basketball team! If that display of futility yesterday didn't firmly slam the nail into moser's coffin, then nothing ever will. Following the game, the SEC network's talking heads sat round table and agreed that moser is terrible and has to go. Citing the 33% attendance at LNC as a result of what moser has done to destroy the program, they concluded with all three saying "Norman, you have to do better." But nobody seems at ease criticizing the real culprit in OU's basketball and football demise: castiglione! He has to go and the sooner the better! Just Do It, Norman, OK!
Yep, solid start to the season. We'll really start to learn what we have this coming Wednesday.