Cochell Sees Improvement Through Two Weeks Of Workouts

The Oklahoma baseball team completed its second week of full-squad workouts last Thursday as the team broke for the weekend to enjoy the Oklahoma-Texas football festivities in Dallas. The team has already fit in six intrasquad games through the first two weeks and head coach Larry Cochell is already beginning to see progress in the team's play.

"This week has been the best week yet because we've been intrasquading a lot," said Cochell. "The players have displayed a high level of intensity during our games and the drive to improve is evident among them."

Cochell is especially happy about the way the newcomers are performing during the intrasquad games. The crop of new players will be key to the Sooners' success this year as they will be counted on to fill the voids at six starting positions in the field and add depth to the pitching staff. The group of 19, which was recently ranked ninth-best in the country by Collegiate Baseball, is made up of nine junior college transfers, nine freshmen and one university transfer.

"We're really happy with the way our new junior college and freshmen players are progressing this fall," said Cochell. "We've got so many new guys that we're mostly focusing on emphasizing the fundamentals and coaching them on what to do in certain situations."

Several young freshmen have already begun to impress the coaching staff during fall workouts. Catcher Josh Stinson, infielder Chad Lembeck and pitchers Charles Benoit and Ryan Mottern came to campus highly-touted and, according to Cochell, are beginning to live up to their high acclaim.

"Stinson gives us a great left-handed bat with a lot of power and gives us needed depth behind the plate, while Mottern has been very impressive on the mound and at the plate as well," Cochell commented.

Mottern, who pitched as well as competed at multiple positions in the field during his prep career, was initially expected to make more of an impact on the mound with the Sooners than at the plate. However, given the opportunity to prove his offensive talents as well this fall, the coaches are also allowing him to compete for a spot in the outfield. The Palestine (Tx.) High School standout batted .444 with five home runs and 21 RBI his senior season in addition to compiling a 1.43 ERA and 95 strikeouts on the mound.

Of the new junior college transfers, Cochell singled out infielders Ryan Rohlinger, Ole Sheldon and Eric Thornton as the main contributors from the junior college class thus far this fall. After smashing 20 home runs and 91 RBI during his first and only season in junior college, Rohlinger provides a strong source of offensive power at the plate. Sheldon has been able to drastically improve the team's talent at first base, while Thornton has emerged as one of the team's best offensive prospects.

The team's intrasquad schedule for this week has been altered. The team will now hold its games on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday of this week before heading into the final week of team practice next week.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Cochell Sees Improvement Through Two Weeks Of Workouts

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