Baseball Opens Big 12 Tournament Against Texas A&M

Seventh seeded Oklahoma (22-29, 10-17 Big 12) will take on No. 2 seed Texas A&M (41-15, 19-8 Big 12) in the opening day of the 2003 Phillips 66 Big 12 Conference Tournament at the SBC Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City. The Sooners and the Aggies will square off in the second matchup on the tournament's opening day at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. The winner of the contest will advance to compete at 5 p.m. on Thursday, while the loser will open tournament competition on Thursday morning at 10 a.m. The two teams will be pitted against the outcome of the contest between third-seeded Texas and sixth-seeded Oklahoma State.

The Sooners clinched their seventh-straight Big 12 Conference Tournament berth on the final day of the regular season with a 7-0 shutout victory over the Missouri Tigers on Sunday. Oklahoma locked up the seventh seed when Kansas, who is seeded eighth, lost to Kansas State later that day.

DATES: May 21-25
FIRST PITCH: Wednesday at 1 p.m.
BALLPARK: SBC Bricktown Ballpark (13,066)
LOCATION: Oklahoma City, Okla.
RADIO: The game will be broadcast locally on KREF (1400 AM) with Jim Byers calling the action. The broadcast can also be heard on Oklahoma's official web site www.soonersports.com. Gametracker, which also can be accessed through soonersports.com, will be run throughout the series to provide fans live updates on the game's progress.
TELEVISION: None.
RANKINGS: Oklahoma is not ranked in any of the four major polls.
BIG 12 TOURNAMENT HISTORY NOTES: Oklahoma ia seeded seventh in this year's Big 12 Conference Baseball Tournament ... OU is scheduled to begin tournament action on Wednesday versus No. 2 seed Texas A&M ... No. 3 seed Texas and No. 6 seed Oklahoma State are both on Oklahoma's side of the tourney bracket ... The Sooners own a 13-11 record over the six-year history of the Big 12 Conference Tournament ... The Sooners have never been eliminated from the tournament after the first two games ... The last time Oklahoma held down the No. 7 seed was in 2001 ... OU christened the inaugural tournament in 1997 by winning the first tournament championship ... Oklahoma won the championship that year by defeating Texas Tech, 19-17, in the final game ... It became the third conference tournament championship won by the Sooners in program history ... The program won two other conference tournament championships as part of the Big Eight Conference in 1977 and 1979 ... OU went 2-2 in last year's tournament ... Oklahoma won its first two games over Oklahoma State (11-3) and Texas A&M (9-1) before falling twice to eventual tournament champ Texas (1-2 & 5-8) ... Oklahoma is 3-3 against Texas A&M in tournament history ... The Sooners own a 1-2 record against Texas and a 4-0 mark over Oklahoma State in tourney action.

Last Time Out

With its Big 12 Conference Tournament fate unknown heading into the game, Oklahoma lefthander Buddy Blair turned in his top performance of the season and led the Sooners to a 7-0 victory and a spot in this week's conference tournament Sunday afternoon at Taylor Stadium. The Sooners' first shutout of the season clinched a spot in the tournament and salvaged the final game of the three-game set against the Tigers. The Sooner offense also helped out the effort as they pounded out 16 hits and had six players register multi-hit performances. OU senior center fielder Reggie Willits' and freshman third baseman Russell Raley's both led the way with a pair of three-hit efforts.

Blair worked out of trouble throughout the game. Blair left a pair of baserunners stranded on base in each of the first four frames, including four in scoring position, and escaped unscathed. Blair was at his best late in the game as he retired nine of the last 10 batters he faced in his final three innings of work. He allowed only five hits in his eight innings of work and struck out six batters, while walking only three.

Oklahoma scored three runs in the second inning to take an early lead. Sophomore first baseman Matt Bose (2-for-4) ignited the Sooners' rally with a single to begin the inning and after a wild pitch and a ground out advanced him to third base, he crossed home plate on a double by junior catcher Spencer Wyman (2-for-5). Pinch hitter Andrew McGuire (1-for-2) followed with a base hit to right field which moved Wyman to third base to put him in position to score on senior designated hitter Matt Arkison's (0-for-3) ground out to shortstop. Raley then singled up the middle to plate McGuire for OU's third run of the frame.

In the third inning, Oklahoma plated another run to extend its lead to 4-0. Willits led off the frame with a double in to the left field corner and swiped his conference-leading 35th base of the year to wind up at third base with no outs. Bose then scored Willits by lifting a sacrifice fly to right field.

With two outs and Sooners at first and second base, senior second baseman Eddie Cornejo (1-for-4) drove a pitch to left-center field to bring home Raley and Willits to tag on two insurance runs and give OU a 7-0 lead.

Sophomore relief ace Jarod McAuliff came on to pitch the ninth inning and retire the Tigers in order to complete the shutout. The combined shutout was the first of both Blair and McAuliff's careers.

Sooners At The Plate

As a team, Oklahoma is batting .276 with 35 home runs and 269 RBI ... Oklahoma's offense has recorded double-digit hit totals in six of its last nine games ... OU's team batting average ranks 10th in the Big 12 Conference overall and ninth in league game only standings ... Sooners in the Big 12 overall standings: Reggie Willits - first in stolen bases, sixth in on base percentage, tied-11th in batting average, tied-9th in runs scored and tied-10th in walks; and Eddie Cornejo - second in batting average, fifth in on base percentage, tied-7th in walks and eighth in hits ... Sooners in the Big 12 only standings: Willits - first in stolen bases, tied-9th in runs scored and 21st in batting average; Cornejo - first in on base percentage, second in batting average, fourth in hits and tied-4th in walks; Kitch - third in stolen bases and tied-6th in triples; Brandon Jones - tied-6th in triples ... In last week's NCAA statistics, Willits ranked tied for sixth in the nation in stolen bases per game ... He moved into a tie for sixth place on the school's single season stolen base list with his 36th stolen base of the season on Sunday ... The mark ties former Sooner Baine Brooks who accomplished the feat in 1987 ... Cornejo led the team in hitting last week ... He hit at a .400 (6-for-15) clip with one run scored and six RBI ... The effort included a 3-for-3 performance against Texas-Arlington last Tuesday ... He also scored a run and drove in another in that game ... ... Cornejo had a season team best 12-game hitting streak halted during the Missouri series ... He batted .511 (24-for-47) with 12 runs scored and 12 RBI during the streak ... Russell Raley led the Sooners in hitting during the Missouri series ... The freshman third baseman batted .400 (4-for-10) with a run scored and two RBI.

Sooners On The Mound

The Sooner pitching staff is currently sporting a 5.17 ERA and has struck out 337 batters while walking 166 ... The staff's ERA ranks seventh in the Big 12 Conference overall and sixth in league games only ... Sooners in the Big 12 Conference standings: Jarod McAuliff - 1st in appearances and tied-2nd in saves; Mark Roberts - 20th in ERA, fifth in strikeouts, eighth in innings pitched, tied-6th in games started and tied-10th in complete games; David Purcey - fifth in appearances and tied-9th in strikeouts and opponent batting average; Buddy Blair - 24th in ERA, tied-9th in strikeouts, tied-6th in games started, 10th in innings pitched and tied-10th in complete games ... Sooners in the Big 12 only standings: McAuliff - first in appearances, tied-2nd in saves; Roberts - tied-4th in strikeouts and innings pitched, tied-8th in complete games, tied-1stin games started and 17th in ERA; Purcey - third in appearances, ninth in ERA and third in opponent batting average; and Blair - tied-1st in games started and 23rd in ERA ... McAuliff moved into second place on the school's single-season appearances record with his 33rd outing of the season on Sunday ... Purcey lasted a season high seven frames and struck out a career high 10 batters at Missouri on Saturday ... His 10 strikeouts marked an team individual best for the season ... Blair pitched his best game of the season on Sunday in helping the Sooners clinch their Big 12 Conference Tournament berth ... He allowed only five hits in his eight innings of work and struck out six batters, while walking only three ... He left a pair of baserunners stranded on base in each of the first four frames, including four in scoring position ... He was at his best late in the game as he retired nine of the last 10 batters he faced in his final three innings of work ... Along with McAuliff's help, the two combined to capture the team's first shutout of the season ... It also marked the first combined shutout of both hurler's careers ... On the weekend, the Sooner pitching staff held one of the conference's best offenses (which entered the weekend fourth in the league in team batting average) to only 21 hits over the three games.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Baseball Opens Big 12 Tournament Against Texas A&M

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