Week 9 OU Baseball Report: Sooners must find their bats after being swept by Tigers
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The Skinny
Against Texas Tech last week, the contest the Sooners played in Frisco, Texas, before returning home to meet then-sixth-ranked — now-third-ranked — LSU over three chilly and wind-swept days at L. Dale Mitchell Park, the quintet of Jason Walk, Easton Carmichael, Jaxon Willits, Dasan Harris and Drew Dickerson went 13 of 24 at the plate, hit three home runs, drove in eight runs and scored seven.
Oklahoma prevailed 8-6 and it felt like a fine prelude toward meeting the Tigers.
Instead, that same quintet over three games against LSU went 8 of 45 at the plate, drove in one run and scored two. That and the rest of their teammates picked up only seven additional hits, drove in only two other runs and scored only two more, too.
That’s how bad it was.
In three games against one of the nation’s best teams, OU capped out at five hits each game, collected only one extra base hit, picked up two hits from the same player only once — Sam Christiansen in Game 1 — and did not even plate a single earned run against LSU, which opened the series with a 14-strikeout, 135-pitch complete game shutout from Kade Anderson before needing just four other pitchers to neutralize the Sooners over the next two days.
That’s what OU is trying to come back from this week and it’s a lot.
First, the Sooners get their mid-week nemesis, Dallas Baptist (20-11, 5-4 Conference USA), which had been ranked 19th but just fell out of the coaches’ poll after losing two of three games to Western Kentucky, visiting L. Dale Mitchell Park.
Then they get 14th-ranked Vanderbilt (24-8, 7-5 SEC), which just swept Florida in Gainesville, coming to Norman.
If the Sooners are who we thought they might be given the way they began the season, now’s a good time to start proving it again.
It’s a horrendously tough conference.
Losing two straight series on your home diamond can’t be allowed.
The Schedule
Last week
— def. Texas Tech 8-6
— lost to LSU 2-0
— lost to LSU 10-2
— lost to LSU 3-2
This week
— vs. Dallas Baptist 6:30 p.m. Tuesday
— vs. Vanderbilt, 7 p.m. Friday
— vs. Vanderbilt, 4 p.m. Saturday
— vs. Vanderbilt, 2 p.m. Sunday
Record: 23-8 (5-7 SEC)
Streak: Lost 1
Team numbers
Entering last 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
Entering this week
Games: 31
Batting avg: .285
On-base pct: .393
Slugging pct: .463
Home runs: 36
Triples: 9
Doubles: 54
Stolen bases: 74
Caught stealing: 14
ERA: 4.20
SO/IP: 309/270
Fielding pct: .973
Errors: 30
Unearned runs allowed: 21
Individual leaders
Batting average: Trey Gambill .355, Jaxon Willits .314
On-base pct: Trey Gambill .523, Sam Christiansen .488
Slugging pct: Jaxon Willits .585, Easton Carmichael .528
RBIs: Easton Carmichael 30, Jaxon Willits 29
Home runs: Jaxon Willits 8, Easton Carmichael 6
Triples: Jaxon Willits 2, Easton Carmichael 2
Doubles: Easton Carmichael 9, Kyle Branch 8
Hits: Easton Carmichael 38, Jaxon Willits 37
Runs: Jaxon Willits 35, Jason Walk 26
Stolen bases: Dawson Willis 12, Kyle Branch 10
ERA (minimum 15 innings): Dylan Crooks 1.37, Reid Hensley 1.65
Wins: Kyson Witherspoon 5-2, Reid Hensley 3-0
Innings pitched: Kyson Witherspoon 45, Malachi Witherspoon 37 1/3
Strikeouts: Kyson Witherspoon 68, Malachi Witherspoon 37
Inside the numbers
• A plan for Sam?: It’s almost like SEC pitchers have figured Sam Christensen out. The redshirt sophomore went 3 for 11 against LSU, which was a lot better than most of his teammates. But what’s set Christiansen apart this season has been his ability to draw walks. It’s why his on-base percentage is .488 while his batting average is .284. But over his last six SEC games, Christiansen’s drawn only two walks, one against Alabama and one against LSU.
• Perfect Hitt: In relief of Kyson Witherspoon, James Hitt delivered perhaps his finest appearance as a Sooner, throwing three perfect innings against LSU last Thursday, striking out four, throwing just 26 pitches and lowering his earned run average to 2.65 over 17 innings.
• Cool stat: OU leads the SEC in stolen bases with 74. Kentucky’s next at 68. Yet, what’s wild about the Sooners is every single everyday player has stolen basesm from Dawson Willis’ 12 to Dasan Harris’ three. Seven Sooners have stolen at least seven bases.
Notes of note
Malachi may have found something
Sooner coach Skip Johnson did not explain what the change was, only that Malachi Witherspoon had adjusted his pitching motion slightly and rather than it taking two or three starts, or many more, to pay dividends, it paid them right away.
“It came to pass today,” Johnson said of Witherspoon’s Saturday start against LSU, “and you never see that happen.”
Witherspoon wasn’t fantastic, allowing five hits and two walks over six innings. But of the three runs he allowed, only one was earned, marking his best start since facing Cal-State Northridge on March 1.
Conference holding Sooners down
Of course, when you score four runs over three games your offensive stats are going to suffer. Still, for the entire season, OU’s slashing a respectable .285/.393/.463. You’d rather it be north of .300/.400/.500, but it’s all right.
The problem is OU’s not even close to those numbers against the SEC. Against conference foes, the Sooners are slashing .239/.352/.366, while its opponents are slashing .283/.367/.438.
If OU’s going to finish in the top half of the conference, it has to turn those numbers around.
Rankings and standings
Though still ranked 19th, the Sooners are now tied for 10th in the SEC standings alongside Kentucky. As it happens, there are nine SEC teams in front of them in the coaches’ poll:
No. 1 Arkansas, No. 2 Texas, No. 3 LSU, No. 4 Tennessee, No. 6 Georgia, No. 7 Ole Miss, No. 10 Alabama, No. 12 Auburn, No. 14 Vanderbilt.
OU was ranked ninth entering last week.
Until next time …