Streaking Sooners could go the distance
After eight straight wins, Omaha projections suddenly seem quite reasonable
It’s not like it’s written in stone, mark it down, it’s happening, count on it, coach Skip Johnson’s Oklahoma baseball team’s headed back to the College World Series.
What it might be, though, is a save the date kind of thing, because it absolutely could happen given what the Sooners have been up to lately, while you may or may not have been paying attention.
Way back in 2017, between late February and early March, when Johnson was pitching coach to skipper Pete Hughes, the man he later replaced, OU put together 12 straight wins, all in the non-conference portion of its schedule.
Yet, what the Sooners managed Tuesday night inside L. Dale Mitchell Park, a 3-1 victory over Wichita State accounting for the program’s longest win streak since, eight games, may well be more impressive and may well point toward a squad bound to be given the chance to return to Omaha on its home field.
Ranked 16th by Baseball America and 18th by D1Baseball.com, OU has every chance to find its way into the top 10.
The 2017 streak wound up fool’s gold, OU beginning the run with a win over Long Beach State before topping the likes of Grambling, Villanova, Northern Illinois and eventually Central Connecticut State four times to reach the dozen mark. Yet, that same team finished just 12-11 in conference play, lost two straight games at the Big 12 tournament and was quickly bounced out of NCAA regional play by at Louisville by Xavier.
What the Sooners are riding now is every different: a pair of mid-week victories over Texas-Arlington and Wichita State and conference series sweeps over Kansas State at home and BYU away, their third and fourth conference series sweeps of the season for the first time (and last) in the program's Big 12 Conference history.
Even better, it’s the way the Sooners (25-14, 11-4 Big 12) have won them, the first several one way, the last few another, many of them with two of their biggest bats out of the lineup.
The first way they’ve been winning is by knocking the cover off the ball.
The final scores of the first five games of the streak were 11-9, 12-5, 11-4, 8-7 and 10-8, yet OU’s lead in each before the opponent scored its first run was 9-0, 12-0, 6-0, 6-0 and 6-0.
Typically, Sooner starting pitching would begin wonderfully, the bats would get hot early, starting pitching would tire and the bullpen would take it on the chin, just not enough to keep OU from winning.
Yet, the seventh win of the streak went the other way, last Saturday in Provo, starter Grant Stevens allowed five runs in two innings, only for Jeff Lodes, James Hitt, Carson Atwood, Jace Miner and Malachi Witherspoon to shut the door, combining on seven innings of two-run, five-hit relief.
Then came the Shockers, a Johnny Wholestaff night as old OU skipper Larry Cochell used to call it, when Will Carsten, Johnson’s second choice to take the mound, allowed a fourth-inning leadoff home run to Jordan Rogers only for Carter Campbell, Reid Hensley, Atwood, Ryan Lambert and Witherspoon to follow with six shutout innings, allowing only three hits, all without walking, nor hitting a single batter.
“Our offense has been on fire but today, you know, they just didn’t have it like they had been,” said Campbell, who was given the win after throwing two perfect innings. “But like Skip always says, we pick our guys up, so today the pitchers picked up the hitters and, who knows, this weekend it might be vice versa.”
The Sooners have been winning without John Spikerman, who started Tuesday night for the first time since March 16. Going 0 for 2, his batting average fell from .389 to .378.
Jackson Nicklaus had not played since April 13 against Kansas State and though he went 0 for 3, his batting average remained .368 as he left the ballpark.
Beyond the pitching, the Sooners won Tuesday because, after Shocker pitcher Daniel Zang issued one-out, third-inning walks to Isaiah Lane and Spikerman, his replacement, Drew Iverson, allowed a two-run double from Bryce Madron and an RBI single to Easton Carmichael. That was it, but it was enough.
Johnson doesn’t think his squad’s figured something out so much as worked it out.
“It’s guys getting more playing time, getting to play more in the season, getting used to the season, getting used to the grind of it …,” he said. “They’re kind of catching their breath a little bit, where the first part of the season you really don’t know the dynamic.”
Perhaps it’s just a long way of saying this is who they are and now everybody’s getting a chance to see it.
About that, this weekend, especially if the weather cooperates, many thousands more may get a chance to see it, for it’s Red River rival Texas visiting for a three-game set.
Sounds like fun.