OU, tell me about your team

I’m game for an adult discussion about the Sooners.
I’m not interested in a bunch of assholes—regardless of team affiliation—squirting their verbal diarrhea about bullshite insults.
Here’s hoping I’m surprised.

Holding the Charmin,
EKG

Is it my imagination or did they bring a band to the game yesterday? I could've sworn I heard that insufferable Boomer Loser song

To understand this team you need to understand the coach and his tenure at OU (and at TX prior). This is a scrappy team who is gelling at the perfect time. Won all but 2 conf series this year.

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Skip Johnson
Widely regarded as one of the premier pitching coaches in the country, Skip Johnson has led the Oklahoma baseball program since June 2017. Since taking over the reins after serving one year as the Sooners’ pitching coach, he has led the Sooners to a 112-80 record in four seasons.

Johnson’s influence on the program began immediately and has progressed each year. The OU pitching staffs posted a progressively lower ERA in each of his first four seasons in Norman. Oklahoma’s 3.92 team ERA in 2019 was only the seventh team ERA under 4.00 since 1980, and the first since 2015. In his first two seasons, Sooners pitchers posted two of the top five strikeout totals in program history. A total of 17 pitchers have heard their name called in the Major League Baseball Draft since 2017 and 23 Sooners overall have been drafted by MLB teams since 2018.

Johnson earned his 100th career victory at OU with a 10-4 victory over Kansas on April 9, 2021. First baseman Tyler Hardman earned second-team All-America honors from three outlets (ABCA, NCBWA and Perfect Game) and was selected in the fifth round of the 2021 MLB Draft. Pitchers Wyatt Olds (seventh round) and Jason Ruffcorn (eighth round) were also taken in the MLB Draft. Hardman won the Big 12 batting title with a .397 average — the highest by a Sooners since 2001 — and the pitching staff ranked 16th nationally by averaging 10.6 strikeouts per nine innings.

In the 2020 season shortened due to COVID-19, the Sooners compiled a 14-4 record and climbed as high as No. 9 in the national polls. In the process, OU turned in some historic performances. Dane Acker pitched Oklahoma’s first individual no-hitter since 1989 against No. 11 LSU in the Shriners College Classic, and the pitching staff combined for a Big 12-record 21 strikeouts in one game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Cade Cavalli became OU’s 10th first-round selection in the regular June Major League Baseball Draft when he was selected 22nd overall. A program-record four Sooners were drafted in the first four rounds, including all three pitchers in the weekend rotation (Cavalli, Levi Prater and Acker).

Johnson coached OU to the program’s 38th NCAA Regional appearance in 2018. The Sooners posted a 38-25 record – the highest win total since 2013 – and reached the finals of the Tallahassee Regional. In the process, Oklahoma pitchers set a school record with 608 strikeouts. Outfielder Steele Walker was named a Second-Team All-American by Baseball America and the NCBWA, and pitcher Levi Prater was selected as a Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball. Outfielder Kyler Murray, who went on to win the 2018 Heisman Trophy with the OU football team, was the ninth overall selection in the 2018 MLB Draft. Nine players were drafted, including five in the first 10 rounds (Walker in the second round, pitcher Jake Irvin in the fourth round, pitcher Austin Hansen in the eighth round and outfielder Cade Harris in the 10th round).

Oklahoma pitchers surrendered the fewest home runs in the Big 12 Conference in 2017 and combined for 531 strikeouts to rank fourth in the league and fourth in OU single-season history. The Sooners’ 9.26 strikeouts per nine innings ranked second in the conference. As a team, OU pitchers struck out 10 or more batters on 24 occasions.

Sooner pitchers combined for 17 starts of six innings or more in 2017, including the first two games of the Louisville Regional. Three Oklahoma pitchers were selected in the 2017 MLB Draft. Sooner closer JB Olson was drafted in the 10th round to extend a string of seven straight years with an Oklahoma player chosen in the first 10 rounds. OU saw starter Devon Perez and reliever Vincenzo Aiello selected on day three of the draft.

Prior to coming to Oklahoma, Johnson spent a 25-year coaching career in the state of Texas, including the most recent 10 years as an assistant and associate head coach at the University of Texas

Sauce

Cade Horton last 3 starts:

Big 12 Title game: vs Texas:
5.1 ip, 2 hits, 1r, 9 K

Regional final: vs Florida:
6.1 IP 7 hits, 2r , 8 Ks

Super Regional final: vs. Virginia Tech:
6.0 ip, 2 hits, 2r, 1 walk, 8 Ks

Not that anyone asked but here is a quick summary on A&M.

Our starting pitches sucks. Dettmer looked ace like midseason, but has fallen off. Dallas was the big time transfer from TTU. Midseason he looked so bad that if we had other options he would have been relegated to midweek. But he’s figured it out and looked solid again.

Our bullpen was a weakness early but has really come along. Palish, Moo, & Johnston are all lefties and all pretty dang good. Palish has been most consistent and has taken the closer role. Moo is a fan favorite with big time K stuff. He does get touched up at time. He’s a workhorse in the mid innings. Johnston is a good mix between the two. Cortez and Rudis are the young righties. Cortez throws straight gas. Rudis has more pitch ability.

Offensively the lineup has turned out to be strong. 2-3-4-5 are as good as anyone. 8 hole JT has turned into a nice surprise lately. Claunch is a plus defensive catcher and solid enough at the plate. Very clutch. We like to run a little but don’t go overboard. The lineup is constructed L/R somewhat well to avoid poor match ups.

Defensively we have some major issues. We make some serious web gems but also screw up normal plays regularly.

The overlying thing about this club is that the moment is never too big. The deficit is never too big. These guys have grit and heart that carried them this far.

Will be an interesting series - our teams are almost opposite on where pitching is strong/weak.

Game 1 is always the key. Win that and it helps your pitching because winner can look at as 18 innings to keep pitchers rested where loser has to look at using any/all pitchers for 9 innings just to get another 9.

I think it will be a fun series. Baseball is really hard to go all the way due to pitcher injury risk and resting.

IMO you are not inaccurate in what you posted in post #1, however there are a couple of things to consider about OU.

First is that Cade Horton is no joke. He gets better by the outing and he two hit a potent Va Tech lineup and probably got pulled a little early. He keeps getting better.

Secondly, is that OU seems to be living right. Despite an occasional horrid performance, in game after game they just seem to have good things happen to them at opportune times.

This may be random luck or maybe they are making their own luck. If it's the former my money would be on the Aggies this week. If it's the latter I'm thinking maybe the Sooners have the better chance.

Don’t know anything about VT, but that Super Regional series wasn’t really that close. Couple that with a dominant performance in the Regional.

So yeah, OU has been on a roll…

Seems like Bennett (lefty?) has been lights out

Thats the thing, we had some early season games which by leads were a sure win and our BP lost them late. But coach likely used the aeason as a whole to work his team rather than trying to win more by extending starters times. I think that strategy is paying off now and those early ugly losses help motivate as well.