Skip Johnson's '24 Sooners compare nicely to other sets of diamond Sooners
Skip Johnson's '24 Sooners compare nicely to other sets of diamond Sooners
What if I told you Sooner baseball should be considered in the same realm as Sooner softball?
It’s patently ridiculous, of course, because one has won seven national championships and the other only two and one has won all seven since 2000 and the other none.
One has become an evil diamond empire in the eyes of many who believe its dominance bad for the sport and the other only dreams it might.
Also, one is entering NCAA regional play after posting a 22-5 conference record before winning the annual Big 12 tournament, while the other could very well post a 24-6 conference mark and win the conference tourney, too.
Additionally, one has already won the regular season Big 12 championship and it’s not the softball team.
The truth is, this season, the two programs are not so terribly far apart.
The biggest difference between them other than the size of their pitching staffs, length of base paths and circumference of the ball?
Coach Patty Gasso’s softball team is 49-6 for a winning percentage of .891 and coach Skip Johnson’s baseball team is 32-17 for a winning percentage of .653.
Then again, if the softball team played the ninth toughest out-of-conference schedule like the baseball team has, rather than the 30th, maybe those numbers would be closer, too.
Confession.
I had no idea I’d carry out this comparison for so long, yet the more I did the more fun it became and, you have to admit, it puts the big diamond Sooners in fine perspective as they travel to Cincinnati for the regular season’s last three games.
The original idea was to compare Johnson’s 2024 Sooners to his 2022 Sooners, who reached the best two-of-three championship series at the Men’s College World Series.
Because this team compares favorably to that team, both on the mound and in the batter’s box.
That team caught fire in the postseason, aided by Cade Horton catching fire on the mound. But this team is on fire right now, sports a candidate who could catch fire the way Horton did and if it can nail down the No. 3 spot in its pitching rotation could become still more formidable.
Let’s get to it.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Oklahoma Columnist, by Clay Horning to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.