Sooners Return Home To Face Highlanders Over The Weekend

After opening with six of their first nine games on the road, the 16th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners (8-2) return home to host UC-Riverside (8-9) in a three-game series this weekend. The series begins on Friday at 3 p.m. at L. Dale Mitchell Park and continues on Saturday and Sunday with 1 p.m. start times.

A pair of special promotions will be run throughout the series. A staple at OU baseball games the last several years, Baseball Bingo presented by Gordmans will give fans a chance to win a $10 gift card from Gordmans each game. Also, Auntie Anne coupons will be distributed prior to all three games.

Website Weekend will be making its debut during the UCR series. Fans can present a SoonerSports.com pop-up coupon for a regular adult general admission ticket of $2 ($3 off the regular price). The promotion is based on ticket availability and limited to a maximum of four people per bulletin.

Sunday's game is designated as Church Bulletin Day. Fans that present a church bulletin at the gate will receive a regular adult general admission ticket for $2 ($3 off the regular price). The promotion is based on ticket availability and limited to a maximum of four people per bulletin.

Setting The Scene
DATES: March 5-7
FIRST PITCHES: Friday at 3 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m.
BALLPARK: L. Dale Mitchell Park (2,700)
LOCATION: Norman, Okla.
RADIO: Friday and Saturday's contests will be broadcast over the radio and the Internet.
TELEVISION: None, however, The O-Zone, Oklahoma's subscription-based premium content area within SoonerSports.com, will air the first two games of the series.
LIVE STATS: Live Stats, which can be accessed through soonersports.com, will be run during the series to provide fans live updates on the game's progress.
RANKINGS: Oklahoma is ranked 16th by Collegiate Baseball, 17th in the Sports Weekly/ESPN poll and 19th in the Baseball America and NCBWA polls. UC-Riverside is not ranked in any of the polls.
UC-RIVERSIDE SERIES NOTES: Oklahoma is 1-2 against UC-Riverside under current head coach Larry Cochell ... The three games against the Highlanders occurred during the 2002 season ... The two teams were scheduled to play the three-game series in Norman but were forced to move it to California due to snow in Oklahoma at the time ... OU won the first contest 5-1, but dropped a pair of two-run games by scores of 8-6 and 9-7, respectively, in the final two games ... Mark Roberts came in the first game of the Saturday doubleheader and pitched the final two innings to earn the save ... Roberts took the loss in the series finale as he allowed two runs on three hits after entering the game in the eighth inning ... The Highlanders are the fourth team from the state of California that the Sooners have faced this season ... Oklahoma has four players that hail from the state of California ... Senior pitcher Charlie House hails from Wilton, freshman hurler Brent Lysander is from San Diego, junior centerfielder Jeff Scuderi is from Mission Viejo and senior pitcher Mike Swindell hails from Wildomar.

Sooners At The Plate
Oklahoma is batting .278 on the season with 67 runs scored and 55 RBI ... OU batted .293 during their recent eight-game winning streak ... The Sooners led the competitive tournament field with a .275 batting average at the Kia Baseball Bash ... The team's top hitter during the tournament was sophomore second baseman Russell Raley ... Raley topped all Oklahoma batters with a .462 average, six hits and .615 slugging percentage ... One of the keys to the team's performance in the tournament was scoring first in each of the three games ... The top four batters in the OU lineup batted .327 (16-for-49) during the event and accounted for over half of the teams runs scored, hits and RBI production ... Junior third baseman Matt Bose continued to swing a hot bat during the tournament ... He has raised his batting average 190 points by batting for a combined .500 average over the last two weekends ... Bose extended his hitting streak to eight games with a 1-for-4 effort at UTA on Tuesday ... Two other promising hitting streaks ended on Tuesday at UTA ... Junior centerfielder Jeff Scuderi had a seven-game streak end and junior first baseman Ole Sheldon had a six-game stretch snapped ... Freshman leftfielder Aaron Ivey is proving to be the team's top clutch hitter in the early season ... He improved his team best totals in the game-winning hits and RBI categories to two and three, respectively, by driving in the winning run last Friday night against No. 13 Cal State Fullerton with a single ... Not far behind Ivey is junior shortstop Brenan Herrera who drove in the game-winning run on Sunday with a base hit to give him a pair of game-winning hits and RBI on the young season.

Sooners On The Mound
The Oklahoma pitching staff is sporting a 3.00 ERA and has struck out 70 batters while walking 31 ... The staff brought its ERA down by almost a full run for the second consecutive weekend ... They combined for a 1.60 ERA during the team's recent eight-game winning streak ... The staff posted a tournament best 0.96 ERA during the Kia Baseball Bash, including a 0.86 ERA by the starters ... In seven innings of work over the weekend, the relief staff surrendered only one earned run and combined for a 1.29 ERA ... The productive weekend lowered the bullpen's ERA over a full run ... Junior lefty David Purcey continued to put up impressive numbers in the No. 1 starting spot ... Purcey held 13th-ranked Cal State Fullerton, who entered the game batting .326 as a team, to two hits and one run in 6.2 innings of work ... The hot-hitting Titans only managed to bat a combined .095 against him ... Junior reliever Jarod McAuliff extended his scoreless innings streak to begin the season to 11.2 frames with 1.2 more scoreless innings at UTA ... The stretch is a career best for the righthanded closer ... Senior starting pitcher Casey Brown rebounded well from a shaky second start to shine in his third outing against USC ... Brown allowed only seven hits and one earned run in 6.1 innings and picked up his second win of the season ... Fellow senior hurler Mark Roberts capped off the tournament with the staff's third-straight standout starting performance ... The Owasso, Okla., native posted season bests in innings pitched and strikeouts with eight each and held third-ranked Georgia Tech to only five hits ... Junior reliever Daniel McCutchen turned in his second solid relief stint of the season ... McCutchen was able to retire five of the last seven batters to close out the USC game after the Trojans had narrowed the Sooners' seven run lead to four ... McCutchen received his first career starting assignment on Tuesday at UTA.

How The West Was Won
Oklahoma took home the prestigious Kia Baseball Bash crown with a dominating weekend performance. The Sooners faced some of the competition in the country and left California with a tournament sweep.

On Friday night, junior pitchers David Purcey and Jarod McAuliff teamed up for the second time this season to shutdown a top 25 team. The duo held the 13th-ranked Titans to one run on three hits through 10 innings for the 5-1 victory. Freshman leftfielder Aaron Ivey drove in the game-winning run with a single to right field to break the deadlock in extra frames.

Senior starting pitchers Casey Brown and Mark Roberts finished off the final two games of the tournament by following with equally impressive starts on the mound. Brown held USC in check for the first six innings on Saturday and finished the game allowing only one earned run on seven hits. Tournament Co-Most Outstanding Player Ole Sheldon was the team's leading offensive player in the game with three hits and a pair of runs scored and RBI.

Roberts helped OU complete the tournament sweep on Sunday by pitching a season high eight frames and fanning a season best eight batters against No. 3 Georgia Tech. He surrendered only five hits and no earned runs while walking only two. Junior shortstop Brenan Herrera contributed his second game-winning hit and RBI of the season to provide the difference as part of his two-hit effort.

The Sooners turned in the top team performances of the entire tournament in several categories. Over the three games, Oklahoma outscored its opponents 20-9, while the pitching staff's ERA was less than a run.

Most Outstanding Sooner
Junior first baseman Ole Sheldon took home Co-Most Outstanding Player honors from the Kia Baseball Bash last weekend after being a key sparkplug for the Oklahoma offense as they swept through the tournament field en route to the tournament title. Sheldon, who shared honors with USC centerfielder Daniel Perales, hit at a .385 clip during the tournament and drove in a team high four RBI. He extended his season best hitting streak to six games by collecting at least one hit in all three games and established a career high in hits and tied his career high in runs scored and RBI.

He paced the Sooners offensively in their 9-6 win over USC on Saturday with a career high three-hit effort. The Roseburg, Ore., native collected hits in his first three at bats against the Trojans and contributed to scoring efforts in each of the three plate appearances.

In the team's tournament finale against third-ranked Georgia Tech on Sunday, Sheldon drove in a pair of runs with a double in Oklahoma's 6-2 win.

Cracking The Polls
With a three-game sweep of some perenial national powerhouses at the Kia Baseball Bash over the weekend, the Oklahoma baseball team received some much deserved respect from the national media and coaching community on Monday as they broke into the top 25 of all four national polls. The Sooners, who were recently crowned tournament champs after wins over previously-ranked No. 3 Georgia Tech, No. 13 Cal State Fullerton and USC, were ranked highest by Collegiate Baseball who listed Oklahoma at No. 16, a jump of 12 spots in their poll. The Sports Weekly/ESPN poll debuted OU at No. 17 followed by Baseball America and the NCBWA polls that had the Sooners at No. 19.

The ranking by Collegiate Baseball was the program's highest regular season ranking in any of the polls since the week of May 18, 1998, when the publication rated the Sooners the 14th-best team in the country. However, Oklahoma did debut at No. 15 in the magazine's 2001 preseason poll.

The last time the Sooners were ranked in the top 25 was during the 2002 season when they were ranked 24th by Collegiate Baseball. The last appearance in Baseball America and Sports Weekly's polls came the previous week when OU was ranked 25th and 23rd, respectively.

At 8-1, the Sooners have jumped out to their best start in five years since the 1998 squad opened the season 12-0. The two wins over the Yellow Jackets and the Titans improved the team's record against top 25 competition this year to 3-0 after they picked up a win two weeks ago against then-seventh ranked Arizona State.

UC-Riverside Game Time Change
The start time for Saturday's contest against UC-Riverside at L. Dale Mitchell Park has been changed to 1 p.m. The game was originally scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m.

Game times for the other two contests against the Highlanders are set for 3 p.m. on Friday and 1 p.m. on Sunday.

The Stealing Kind
The Sooners are off to a fast start in the stolen base department. Through the first 10 games, the team has swiped 21 bases in 23 attempts and has recorded six multiple steal games. At the team's current rate of 2.10 per game, the Sooners are on pace to steal 119 bases this year, the most since the 1994 season when the national championship squad was successful at stealing 138 times.

Six of OU's regular starters in the field have already been successful at at least one attempt on the season. Leading all Sooners is junior centerfielder Jeff Scuderi who is a perfect 7-for-7 in the category, followed by freshman leftfielder Aaron Ivey who is 5-for-5.

Purcey Named To Clemens Award Watch List
After making his mark on the national scene early this season with a fast start, junior lefthanded pitcher David Purcey was recognized as one of the top pitchers in the country after being named to the Roger Clemens Award Watch List last week. In its first year in existence, the award was created to honor the nation's top college pitcher each season.

The initial list is comprised of 40 pitchers who were named as preseason All-Americans by either Baseball America or Collegiate Baseball as well as those hurlers who have been honored this season as National Pitchers of the Week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. Weekly winners of the writer's award will be added to the list until the first round of voting occurs at the end of April. Additional nominees will be added to the list based on notable performances and NCAA statistical rankings.

The voting committee for the award includes all Division I head baseball coaches, a selected panel of national media and past winners for the Rotary Smith Award.

Opening At Home With A Bang
Oklahoma got off to a good start at home two weeks ago with a three-game sweep of Southeast Missouri State. The series win marked Oklahoma's second sweep of the Indians in the last three years. They also accomplished the feat back in 2002.

The wins also helped OU jump out to its best start at home in four years. The Sooners' 3-0 record is its best mark since the 2000 season when OU won its first three games at L. Dale Mitchell Park.

Oddly enough, the series against SEMO was only the third time in the last 30 years that Oklahoma had opened its home season with three consecutive games against the same opponent. The other two times it happened were against Arkansas-Little Rock in 2002 and Missouri-Rolla in 1973.

Chart Climbers
A pair of Oklahoma hurlers, senior Mark Roberts and junior Jarod McAuliff, have a chance to continue to leave lasting marks on the Oklahoma program. Both pitchers will have the opportunity this season to improve their standings on several of the school's career pitching charts.

Roberts, a four-year veteran on the squad, entered the season in 10th place on the all-time appearances list and moved into a tie for the No. 8 spot with former Sooner Kevin King (1988-90) with his 65th outing on Sunday. Serving in both starting and relief roles during his first three seasons, the Owasso, Okla., native is averaging 20.7 appearances a season which puts him on pace to break the career mark of 83 established by Evan Greusel from 1999-2002.

Roberts also broke into the school's top 10 in career strikeouts last weekend and debuted at No. 10 with 222 strikeouts for his career. His season high eight K's over the weekend against then-No. 3 Georgia Tech moved him up among the Sooner elite.

McAuliff made his mark on the school record books last year and sits primed to continue his assault on the career charts with another standout season. With seven outings to his credit this year to give him 66 for his career, McAuliff moved ahead of former Sooner Kevin King (1988-90) and current teammate Mark Roberts (2001-Present) into sole possession of seventh place on the career appearances list. McAuliff's nine saves in 2003 placed him in third on OU's career saves chart and his 35 outings last year, which ranks third on the single-season list, allowed him to crack the top 10 in appearances this season.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Sooners Return Home To Face Highlanders Over The Weekend

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