Sooners going nowhere, and have been going nowhere, playing like this
If the regular season ended today, coach Skip Johnson’s Oklahoma baseball team, loser of six of nine games and six of seven against SEC foes, would still reach NCAA regional play.
It would not host, as it might have a week or two ago, but it would be sent somewhere as a No. 2 seed, playing on the No. 1 seed’s diamond.
And if OU (22-11, 5-8 SEC) were to play there as it’s been playing here, there and everywhere — and Thursday, in Nashville, where Vanderbilt prevailed 10-5 — the Sooners’ postseason trip would end quickly and quietly.
Who knows the culprit.
It could be so many things.
It could be starting pitching, which failed the Sooners on opening night of each of their SEC series — Texas A&M, LSU, Texas, Alabama — prior to Thursday.
Prior to Thursday only because L.J. Mercurious struck out 13 over 6 1/3 innings.
He deserved better.
He would have allowed one earned run rather than three had Trey Gambill correctly read hard-hit balls off the bats of Brodie Johnston and Braden Holcomb in left field.
He didn’t.
And OU’s original two-run edge lasted a mere half inning.
It could be defense.
Because there are the plays that don’t go down as errors yet still need to be made, like Gambill’s — the first he broke in rather than back and the ball went right over his head; the second he froze on a ball ripped just three or four steps to his right and didn’t get his glove up in time — and there are plays like the comical one reliever Jason Bodin, and others, combined to make in the eighth.
Bodin, who’d put out a fire in the seventh, got a groundout to begin the eighth before walking Holcomb.
Holcomb was soon at second base after some inattentive combination of Bodin, catcher Deiten LaChance, second baseman Kyle Branch and shortstop Jaxon Willits allowed him to execute an exceedingly rare delayed steal.
Next, in a one-run game, Bodin — upset after the delayed steal — threw the ball off Branch’s glove into center field trying to pick Holcomb off, allowing him to not only swipe third base but home plate, too, dang near reaching the plate before Jason Walk finally tracked down the ball and fired home.
There’s a word for that.
Or two.
Bad baseball.
Of course, it could always be the bullpen that lets OU down, not to mention its coach’s choices on how to use it.
When Mercurious departed with one out in the seventh, a job well done and a Commodore, Ryker Waite, at first base, Johnson summoned Kadyn Leon, likely looking for another two-plus inning save like the one Leon earned six days earlier against Alabama, when he faced eight batters and got eight outs.
Thursday, Leon plunked the first batter he faced, Korbin Reynolds, with the first pitch he threw.
He then walked Rustin Rigdon on five pitches before allowing a two-run double from Mike Mancini that put the Commodores up 4-2.
The choice to replace Bodin wasn’t a great one either.
He’d lost his cool and errored his way into giving up a run, but he was still pitching well enough when Johnson pulled him.
The guy Johnson brought in, Gavyn Jones, needed two outs to get out of the inning. He allowed three hits and four earned runs before getting them.
Ugh.
It might be the bats.
OU arrived in Nashville having scored four or fewer runs in eight of nine SEC contests.
It pushed five across against the Commodores, the last not coming until the ninth, after the game had been blown open in the eighth.
Still, it was nice to see Dasan Harris come through with a two-out double and Camden Johnson drive him in.
OU built its original 2-0 lead on a first-pitch home run from LaChance, his long-awaited first of the season. It was a lead that should have lasted into the seventh, at least. You already know why it didn’t.
Through the miracle of the SEC Network, every game can be watched.
Every game, the commentators tell us this is a Sooner lineup that’s supposed to produce and a pitching staff loaded with good arms.
Yet, what good is any of it when the hitters can’t hit, the fielders can’t field and one, two or more pitchers dramatically don’t have it.
You’d think, accidentally, something good might happen to OU.
Like an opposing pitcher, when Sooner bats are dead in the water, suddenly walking four straight batters and bringing them back to life.
Or an opponent falling apart defensively.
Or an opponent’s starting pitcher having nothing, letting OU score 10 runs fast.
You know, all the things the Sooners have done for their opponents since opening conference play 4-2, which was fun while it lasted but feels like a very long time ago.
The good news is two-fold.
One, the Sooners beat Dallas Baptist on the road Monday and when did they last do that.
Two, they could always take the next two at Vanderbilt, beat Oklahoma State on Tuesday in Tulsa and sweep Missouri at home next weekend.
It’s never going to happen playing like this.