Week 15 OU Baseball Report: On way to SEC tourney, here's hoping Sooners have hit bottom
Author’s Note: The postseason upon us, this will be my last weekly Sooner baseball report. That doesn’t mean it’s the last column I’ll write about Oklahoma baseball this season, just that it will be the last one in this format. If you’ve enjoyed them and are not an Oklahoma Columnist paid subscriber, please consider a donation of $6/week or $60/year to help keep this venture going. As always, thanks for reading.
The Skinny
Sketchy pitching, bad bats, uncertainty in the field.
That’s not the way any baseball team hopes to enter the postseason, but coach Skip Johnson’s Sooners are stuck with it.
Oklahoma enters the SEC tournament in Hoover, Alabama at 1 p.m. Tuesday, taking on No. 13-seed Kentucky, a team that swept the Sooners in Lexington just more than a week ago. OU, despite a fast start to conference play and still a shoe-in to reach NCAA regional play, is nonetheless the No. 12-seed in the single-elimination conference tourney.
The bright side to OU’s final weekend of regular-season conference play is it indeed took one of three games from second-ranked Texas. The downside is dropping two of three to the Longhorns means the Sooners have lost six of seven to close the regular season and they’ve done it by being a shell of themselves.
In the opener against Texas, OU gave up six runs in the final three innings, the first two attributed to to starting pitcher Kyson Witherspoon, likely because Johnson rode him as long as he could, hoping to keep the bullpen out of it as long as he could. Most alarming, trailing 4-3 entering the ninth inning, closer Dylan Crooks allowed three runs in just a third of a frame, letting the Longhorns break open a game the Sooners hoped they might pull even or win in their final at bat.
The pattern repeated in the final game of the series, when starter Malachi Witherspoon, after rolling through six innings in a 1-1 game, got only one out and allowed three runs in the seventh. Jason Bodin, making his 27th appearance, then allowed five runs over two innings, moving his earned run average to 5.94, which is way too high for any team’s busiest reliever.
In the middle game, an 8-6 victory, the first five batters in the Sooner order drove in only one run and scored none. The heavy lifting, miraculously, came from the bottom of the order, with Brayden Horton in the seven-hole and Dawson Willis in the nine-hole combining to go 4 for 6 with two home runs, five RBIs and five runs scored.
In the three games combined, OU committed seven errors and was fortunate to allow just three unearned runs.
None of it, Horton and Willis aside, is good.
Independent of how long the Sooners last in the conference tournament, they’ll mostly be starting from scratch upon entering the NCAA draw.
No fun.
The Schedule
Last week
— lost to Texas 7-4
— def. Texas 8-6
— lost to Texas 9-1
This week
At SEC tournament, Hoover, Alabama
Single elimination
— vs. Kentucky, 1 p.m., Tuesday
— vs. Georgia, 1 p.m. Wednesday (if victorious Tuesday)
— vs. Vanderbilt, 6:30 p.m. Thursday (if victorious Wednesday)
— vs. TBA, noon Saturday (if victorious Thursday)
— vs. TBA, 2 p.m. Sunday (if victorious Saturday)
Record: 33-10 (14-16 SEC)
Streak: Lost 1
Team numbers
Entering last week
Games: 49
Batting avg: .283
On-base pct: .397
Slugging pct: .462
Home runs: 56
Triples: 17
Doubles: 85
Stolen bases: 104
Caught stealing: 23
ERA: 4.47
SO/IP: 481/419
Fielding pct: .974
Errors: 44
Unearned runs allowed: 34
Entering this week
Games: 52
Batting avg: .278
On-base pct: .391
Slugging pct: .456
Home runs: 60
Triples: 17
Doubles: 87
Stolen bases: 107
Caught stealing: 25
ERA: 4.58
SO/IP: 521/446
Fielding pct: .972
Errors: 51
Unearned runs allowed: 37
Individual leaders
Batting average: Easton Carmichael .321, Kyle Branch .304
On-base pct: Trey Gambill .462, Sam Christiansen .451
Slugging pct: Easton Carmichael .593, Dayton Tockey .511
RBIs: Easton Carmichael 54, Jaxon Willits 41
Home runs: Easton Carmichael 14, Jaxon Willits 9
Triples: Jaxon Willits 3, Easton Carmichael 3, Jason Walk 3
Doubles: Jason Walk 12, Trey Gambill 10, Dawson Willis 10
Hits: Easton Carmichael 67, Kyle Branch 58
Runs: Jaxon Willits 51, Trey Gambill 46
Stolen bases: Dawson Willis 18, Jason Walk 16
ERA (minimum 20 innings): Dylan Crooks 2.00, Kyson Witherspoon 2.48
Wins: Kyson Witherspoon 9-3, Reid Hensley 4-1, Cade Crossland 4-4
Innings pitched: Kyson Witherspoon 83 1/3, Malachi Witherspoon 68 1/3
Strikeouts: Kyson Witherspoon 112, Malachi Witherspoon 82
Inside the numbers
• Not what might have been: OU closed the regular season slashing .278/.391/.456, which is a long way from .296/.404/.485, its slash numbers through the first eight weeks of the season. In conference play only, the numbers are .260/.378/.424. Another example of the Sooners’ offensive struggles? Easton Carmichael, at .328, is the only Sooner hitting .300 or better against the conference.
• Bright spot: Reid Hensley came out of the bullpen in the second game of the Texas series after Cade Crossland, despite sailing through four innings, allowed five runs in the fifth, and promptly settled down the game. In all, Hensley tossed 3 1/3 innings, allowed one hit and no runs, striking out six and walking two. James Hitt, Jason Bodin, even Dylan Crooks, have all struggled recently. Hensley, though, has performed, putting together a 1.23 earned run average over 10 conference appearances.
• Will Willits ever find it?: Jaxon Willits’ skid remains ongoing. He had two hits in the Texas series, both in the opener, yet finished it 2 for 10 with one RBI. Over his last 12 games, all in the conference, Willits has gone 6 for 40 (.150), driven in two runs, scored two runs and collected zero extra-base hits.
Notes of note
It’s on the bullpen
Sooner coach Skip Johnson was late to relieve his starters in all three games against the Longhorns. Both Witherspoon brothers, in addition to throwing 107 pitches, were golden through six innings before hitting a wall in the seventh. In the middle game, Cade Crossland threw 101 pitches. Maybe keep all of them closer to 90?
Whatever, whether Johnson puts shorter leashes on his starting pitchers or not, he’s going to need strong efforts from his relievers and right now, of his most favored options, only Reid Hensley’s at the top of his game.
Who’ll catch fire?
The most welcome Sooner would be Jaxon Willits, who’s certainly due.
Prior to the Georgia series, 12 games ago, Willits was slashing .333/.423/.595 with nine home runs and 39 RBIs. He’s now slashing .295/.403/.503 with the same nine home runs and 41 RBIs.
Jason Walk’s another possibility.
Once one of OU’s most productive hitters, he’s been stuck on seven home runs for 14 games, has smacked just one of his team-high 12 doubles over his last 18 games and has been middling at the plate for a while, hitting .260 over his last 12 games.
Dawson Harris?
He had a huge middle game against Texas — two hits, three RBIs, a home run — but among his last nine games that’s the only one in which he picked up any hits at all.
To make a postseason run, it may take two or three Sooners to catch fire.
Bracketology
Oklahoma is No. 27 in the NCAA’s own RPI, yet for one prognosticator has fallen to No. 3-seed regional status.
Says D1Baseball.com, the Sooners are bound to be the No. 3-seed in the Fort Worth Regional, behind No. 13-national-seed TCU and Texas-San Antonio, which went 23-4 in the American Athletic Conference with the conference tourney still to play. The projected No. 4-seed is Kent State.
According to Aria Gerson, who covers college baseball for The (Nashville) Tennessean, the Sooners will be at the Fort Worth Regional, but as a No. 2-seed, behind No. 15-national-seed TCU and in front of Creighton and Houston Christian.
Baseball America also has the Sooners a No. 2-seed in Fort Worth behind No. 15 national-seed TCU, but in front of Cal Poly and Sacramento State.