Week 8 OU Baseball Report: The series we've been waiting for arrives Thursday
Here’s the SEC series we’ve been waiting for.
Sixth-ranked LSU (26-3, 7-2) arrives at ninth-ranked Oklahoma (22-5, 5-4) Thursday night and if that’s not enough, the series opener will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2.
L. Dale Mitchell Park ought to be full and the humanity beyond the outfield wall ought to be dense.
Here’s the other thing.
The Sooners can win this series.
LSU is intimidating, slashing .338/.456/.572 and those numbers are better than OU’s in all three categories. Yet, against conference competition — Missouri, Texas, Mississippi State — the Tigers are less intimidating, slashing .310/.401/.558.
Those numbers are still better than OU’s against the conference — find them below — but not by a great margin, and the Sooners might have an advantage elsewhere, Tiger starting pitching appearing to be a weakness.
A week ago, LSU’s three-man rotation included Kade Anderson, Anthony Eyanson and Chase Shares, whose earned run averages against conference foes are right now a respective 5.40, 5.54 and 9.26.
The key will be Game 1, OU needing a big and winning performance from Kyson Witherspoon. Get that and the Sooners will be off and running. Get it without overtaxing the bullpen and it will be even better.
At Alabama, where OU suffered its first losing weekend of the season, winning one of three games, Witherspoon happened to suffer his first non-quality start, allowing three earned runs over four innings, exiting the game having already thrown 96 pitches.
Still, he was hardly shelled and hasn’t been all season, working at least five effective innings in each of his other six starts.
Taking two of three from the Tigers would be big.
Sweeping them would be huge, putting OU right back near the top of the conference.
Every weekend’s an adventure in the Sooners’ new league.
This will be the their biggest one yet.
The Schedule
Last week
— def. Oral Roberts 11-2
— lost to Alabama 8-6
— def. Alabama 6-5
— lost to Alabama 8-6
This week
— vs. Texas Tech (at Frisco), 6:30 p.m. Tuesday
— vs. LSU, 6 p.m., Thursday
— vs. LSU, 6:30 p.m. Friday
— vs. LSU, 2 p.m. Saturday
Record: 22-5 (5-4 SEC)
Streak: Lost 1
Team numbers
Entering last week
Games: 23
Batting avg: .299
On-base pct: .407
Slugging pct: .495
Home runs: 27
Triples: 9
Doubles: 45
Stolen bases: 25
Caught stealing: 10
ERA: 4.10
SO/IP: 236/200
Fielding pct: .973
Errors: 22
Unearned runs allowed: 12
Entering this week
Games: 27
Batting avg: .296
On-base pct: .404
Slugging pct: .485
Home runs: 33
Triples: 9
Doubles: 49
Stolen bases: 69
Caught stealing: 13
ERA: 4.15
SO/IP: 276/234
Fielding pct: .972
Errors: 27
Unearned runs allowed: 18
Individual leaders
Batting average: Trey Gambill .377, Kyle Branch .340
On-base pct: Trey Gambill .507, Sam Christiansen .491
Slugging pct: Jaxon Willits .577, Dayton Tockey .566
RBIs: Jaxon Willits 27, Easton Carmichael 27
Home runs: Jaxon Willits 7, Dayton Tockey 5, Easton Carmichael 5
Triples: Jaxon Willits 2, Easton Carmichael 2, Sam Christiansen 2
Doubles: Kyle Branch 8, Jason Walk 7
Hits: Kyle Branch 34, Jaxon Willits 32, Easton Carmichael 32
Runs: Jaxon Willits 33, Trey Gambill 24, Jason Walk 24
Stolen bases: Dawson Willis 12, Kyle Branch 10
ERA (minimum 15 innings): Reid Hensley 1.17, Dylan Crooks 1.50
Wins: Kyson Witherspoon 5-0, Reid Hensley 3-0
Innings pitched: Kyson Witherspoon 39, Malachi Witherspoon 31 1/3
Strikeouts: Kyson Witherspoon 64, Malachi Witherspoon 33
Inside the numbers
• Walk emerging from slump?: Jason Walk flied out his last at bat at Alabama, yet his next-to-last at bat produced a lefty inside-the park home run to the left-center field gap. Perhaps Walk, whose batting average has dropped to .289 after hitting .160 (4 for 25) over his last seven games, has found something.
• Hensley emerges: Here are OU’s pitching appearance leaders: Jason Bodin 15, James Hitt 12, Dylan Crooks 12, Gavyn Jones 11. Still, the one to watch right now is Reid Hensley, who’s made 10 appearances, four since SEC play began, thrown 7 1/3 innings against conference foes and has thus far allowed only one hit and no runs, picking up two wins in relief.
• No. 1 in something: The Sooners’ 68 stolen bases leads the SEC. On the other hand, its 13 caught-stealing number also leads the SEC. The league’s next most prolific base-stealing team is Kentucky with 60, which has also been caught 13 times. No other SEC teams have even stolen 50.
Notes of note
Gambill pays off, others need to
Oklahoma’s slashing .296/.404/.485 in all games, yet in conference games only, not entirely unexpectedly, those numbers have dropped to .262/.378/.419.
One player heading the other way, however, is outfielder Trey Gambill, who’s slashing .440/.531/.600 against SEC competition, tops on the team in all three categories: batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage.
The Sooners badly need a player or two to join Gambill, who’s right now the only Sooner hitting .310 or better against conference foes.
Rotation questions
Last weekend at Alabama, Sooner coach Skip Johnson stuck with Cade Crossland and Malachi Witherspoon as his Games 2 and 3 weekend starters despite recent struggles from both.
Crossland delivered well enough, allowing six hits and two runs over six innings, striking out seven and walking one. Witherspoon did not, allowing seven hits and eight runs (five earned) over five innings, bringing his earned run average to 5.74 and to an even 9.00 — 17 innings, 17 earned runs — over his last four starts.
It’s not clear where Johnson might go should he want to upend the rotation, but the Sooners could really use three quality starts this weekend.
Rankings and standings
Though OU’s two losses at Alabama dropped it to eighth place in the conference with a 5-4 record, the Sooners’ nonetheless remained the ninth-ranked team in the nation in the USA Today coaches’ poll.
SEC squads in front of OU in the standings include Arkansas (8-1), Georgia (8-1), Tennessee (8-1), Texas (8-1), LSU (7-2) and Alabama (6-3).
SEC squads in front of OU in the poll include No. 1 Tennessee, No. 2 Arkansas, No. 3 Georgia, No. 5 Texas, No.6 LSU and No. 8 Alabama.
Until next time …
This team seems to find ways to win. Pitching was the unexpected issue, but the hitting tried to makeup for it, just came up a little short. May be time for M Witherspoon to watch the games this weekend and try to figure things out.