TCU Visits L. Dale Mitchell Park For Mid-Week Swing

No. 13 Oklahoma (25-13) takes a break from the road to host TCU (22-15) Tuesday at L. Dale Mitchell Park. The contest, which is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., will be the second of a two game set between the two schools this season. TCU won the first game in Fort Worth, Texas, 6-3, last month.

“Two For Tuesday” is the special promotion for the game where fans can purchase two adult general admission tickets for the price of one. The game will also feature $.50 cent hot dogs and small cokes day at the ballpark.

Tuesday will also by Country Music Night where only the top hits from country music will be played during inning breaks.

Setting The Scene
DATE: April 20
FIRST PITCH: 7 p.m.
BALLPARK: L. Dale Mitchell Park (2,700)
LOCATION: Norman, Okla.
RADIO: The game will be broadcast locally on KREF (1400 AM) with Mike Treps calling the action. The game can also be heard on Oklahoma's official web site www.SoonerSports.com.
TELEVISION: None, however, The O-Zone, Oklahoma's subscription-based premium content area within SoonerSports.com, will air the entire 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 13th by Baseball America, 16th by the NCBWA, 24th by Collegiate Baseball and 25th in the Sports Weekly/ESPN poll. TCU is not ranked in any of the major polls, but is receiving votes in the latest Sports Weekly/ESPN poll.
TCU SERIES NOTES: Oklahoma leads the all-time series, 48-22 ... The Sooners own a 20-9 advantage over the Horned Frogs during OU head coach Larry Cochell's tenure ... The two teams have played a two game home and home series every year since 1997 ... OU has won 12 of the last 15 contests ... The Sooners have not lost to the Horned Frogs in the last eight contests in Norman dating back to 1997 ... The Sooners defeated the Horned Frogs in a contest in Norman early in the 2003 season ... Andrew McGuire smashed his second home run of the season in the 13-6 Oklahoma win ... Mike Swindell made his first start as a Sooner in the game and received a no-decision ... TCU topped OU 6-3 in Fort Worth, Texas, in the first matchup between the two schools this season ... Junior first baseman Ole Sheldon paced the Sooners offensively with a 3-for-4 performance and one RBI ... Three Sooner relievers turned in solid relief efforts in the contest ... Freshman Ryan Mottern, senior Mike Swindell and junior Daniel McCutchen combined to hold the Horned Frogs scoreless for five frames ... Freshman lefty Charles Benoit suffered the loss in the game in his first career start.

Last Time Out
Eighteenth-ranked Oklahoma won its fourth straight Big 12 Conference series with a 9-5 win over No. 13 Texas A&M Sunday afternoon at Olsen Field. After A&M scored four runs in the first inning, senior reliever Mike Swindell (2-2) entered the contest and turned in a clutch pitching performance by shutting down the Aggies' offense for six innings. Junior closer Jarod McAuliff finished the game and made his 84th career appearance on the mound to set the new school record for all-time appearances.

Although Oklahoma was held to only five hits in the game, the biggest one came off the bat of sophomore shortstop Ryan Rohlinger (1-for-3) who smashed a grand slam homer to give the Sooners' the lead for good in OU's six-run fourth inning.

Swindell relieved senior righthander Charle House with one out in the second inning and worked a season best six frames. He gave up one run on four hits, walked two and struck out four. After giving up a single run on back-to-back hits in the third inning, he held the Aggies scoreless and only allowed one baserunner in his final 2.1 innings of work. He also performed well in the face of adversity as he stranded four runners in scoring position throughout his stint.

Both starting pitchers experienced control problems in their first inning of work and were not able to get out of the frame before being pulled. After the Sooners' two runs chased A&M starter Justin Moore after only .2 innings pitched, OU's starter, junior righthander Daniel McCutchen, was only able to record one out. He issued a walk, hit a batter and was victimized by an error in the field on the first three batters he faced to load the bases. The fourth batter of the frame A&M rightfielder Cory Patton then brought home all three runs on his grand slam home run shot to right field to put the Aggies ahead 4-2.

When Aggie reliever Dan Donaldson ran into control problems of his own in the fourth inning, the Sooners took advantage of the situation to tag him and fellow A&M reliever Kyle Marlatt (3-1) for six runs. Donaldson put two runners on base with back-to-back walks before the first run scored on a failed pick off attempt at first base. Donaldson hit a batter before exiting and Marlatt loaded the bases two batters later on the third walk of the inning.

Sophomore second baseman Russell Raley (1-for-3) drove in a run with an infield single to keep the bases loaded for Rohlinger who hit his first career grand slam home run to tack on the final four runs of the frame and give Oklahoma back the lead at 8-5.

Junior designated hitter Eric Thornton (1-for-3) went deep for his fifth home run of the year to lead off the seventh inning to pad OU's lead at 9-5.

Sooners At The Plate
Oklahoma is batting .283 on the season with 231 runs scored and 200 RBI ... OU's offense has produced double-digit hit efforts in 12 of the last 15 contests, including a string of six straight which was recently snapped on Sunday at No. 13 Texas A&M ... Oklahoma also recorded 25 extra base hits during the five games last week to post the most extra base hits in a one week period this season ... The Sooners outperformed its Big 12 opponent for the fifth straight week at the plate by batting .288 as opposed to the Aggies' .280 batting average ... The team's two triples against A&M on Saturday tied the league's season game high mark ... OU's seven run ninth inning on Friday night marked the most runs the Sooners have scored in one inning this season ... The Sooners' leading hitter last week was junior designated hitter Eric Thornton ... Thornton hit at a .467 (7-for-15) clip with two runs scored and seven RBI ... Five of his seven hits during the week went for extra bases, including three doubles and two home runs ... Junior first baseman Ole Sheldon extended his career and team best hitting streak to 15 games by collecting at least one hit in every game last week ... He is batting .500 (32-for-64) with 15 runs scored and 14 RBI during the streak ... It currently ties for the sixth best mark in the conference this year ... Junior centerfielder Jeff Scuderi had a career high 14-game hitting streak end on Sunday ... He hit .375 (18-for-48) with seven runs scored and 12 RBI during the stretch ... Senior rightfielder Andrew McGuire extended his streak of reaching base safely to 32-straight games over the weekend ... McGuire has only been kept off base in one game this year ... Of his four home runs this season, sophomore shortstop Ryan Rohlinger hit his third home run with game-winning implications on Sunday against No. 13 Texas A&M ... Rohlinger's first career grand slam completed a six-run inning to help OU take the lead for good after trailing A&M by three runs ... Earlier in the season, the West Bend, Wis., native hit his first two home runs, one to tie and one to win the game against Baylor, to help OU complete its largest comeback in seven years ... Freshman catcher Josh Stinson made the most of his three starts last week to improve his season offensive numbers ... After collecting only five hits in 22 games heading into last week, Stinson recorded six hits in his last four games ... Included in this streak was a career high three hit performance against Air Force last Tuesday ... The productive week raised his batting average 77 points.

Sooners On The Mound
The Oklahoma pitching staff is sporting a 3.78 ERA and has struck out 330 batters while walking 132 ... The Sooner staff continues to own the best strikeouts per nine innings average in the Big 12 Conference at 8.61 ... The bullpen lowered its staff ERA by seven points during the Texas A&M series ... The Sooner pitching staff held the Big 12's second leading hitter, Texas A&M's Austin Boggs, to one hit in 12 at bats (.083) during the three game series ... Oklahoma's bullpen did not allow any of the five inherited runners during the Texas A&M series to score ... During conference play this season, Sooner relievers have only allowed four of the 24 inherited runners to score ... For the second straight week, senior reliever Charlie House entered the game after an opponent scored multiple runs to get the Sooners out of the jam by inducing an inning-ending double play ... Over his last six appearances, House has stranded all eight inherited runners ... Likewise, junior closer Jarod McAuliff has not allowed his last five inherited runners to score in his last 11 appearances ... Righthanded reliever Mike Swindell has earned decisions in his last two conference appearances over the last two weekends ... The senior earned his first save of the season in OU's game two win against Missouri and was credited with the win in the team's A&M series finale victory ... In those two games, Swindell allowed only one run on five hits in 8.1 innings of work and struck out nine while walking only three ... Senior righthander Mark Roberts inched closer to breaking two of OU's prominent career pitching records in his latest start ... With his five strikeout performance through six frames last Friday at Texas A&M, Roberts moved to within seven innings of establishing a new career innings pitched record and 18 strikeouts of setting a new all-time strikeout mark ... Tyler Gooch turned in a standout performance last week in his first career start against Air Force last Tuesday ... The junior righthander held the Falcons scoreless on three hits through seven frames ... He also struck out six while not issuing any walks.

A Season Of Firsts
The 2004 Sooner baseball squad has already accomplished several firsts in program history and several other feats that haven't happened in quite a while. Here's a brief look at what this team has already accomplished to this point of the season:

Oklahoma took two out of three at No. 13 Texas A&M last weekend to capture its fourth-straight conference series, a first in the Sooners' Big 12 Conference history.

The series win over the Aggies was the first time since the 2000 season that OU has won two conference road series. During the 2000 season, the Sooners were victorious in three Big 12 road series.

Earlier in the season, the Sooners swept three straight league opponents for the first time since 1984. That year Oklahoma won a pair of two-game sets against Oklahoma State and Kansas and a four-game series over Kansas State.

Oklahoma put together a nine-game winning streak in Big 12 play which is the first time since 1986 (when OU was a member of the Big Eight Conference) that the Sooners had won nine straight league games.

King Of The Hill
Junior closer Jarod McAuliff became OU's all-time appearances leader with his 84th career outing on Sunday at No. 13 Texas A&M. He passed former Sooner Evan Greusel who previously held the record with 83 appearances from 1999-2002.

McAuliff's 24 appearances this season put the Stillwater, Okla., native over the mark in only his third year. His appearances total currently ranks first in the Big 12 Conference in games overall and he also owns the conference only mark with 10 appearances in league action.

As the team's designated closer over the last two years, McAuliff made his largest move up the appearances chart last year by making 35 outings out of the bullpen. The total fell two outings shy of establishing a new single-season mark.

He saw most of his action in relief as a freshman in 2002 when he made 24 outings on the mound. He averaged 29.5 appearances during his first two years and is already four outings shy of that mark this year with 24.

Back On Track
After his average dipped to its lowest point of the season at the beginning of last week, sophomore second baseman Russell Raley picked it back up with a productive week at the plate. Ranked among the top three on the team in batting average for most of the year, Raley's average fell to .308 last week.

His average steadily rose 19 points throughout the week to its current mark of .327 by hitting at a .429 (9-for-21) clip last week. The Uvalde, Texas, native recorded three multi-hit performances including a career high tying three hits against Western Illinois last Wednesday.

He also improved upon his runs scored and RBI totals by scoring two or more runs in each game of the Texas A&M series last weekend and driving in one run in each game as well.

Best In The Big 12
Not many pitching staffs in the Big 12 Conference can match the effectiveness of Oklahoma's trio of starting pitchers Mark Roberts and David Purcey and closer Jarod McAuliff. In fact, OU is the only team in the league to boast their top two starters in the weekend rotation and its designated closer amongst the league's leaders in several categories.

All three Sooner pitchers appear in the top 10 in the Big 12 in ERA, opposing batting and wins, while both Purcey and Roberts also sit amongst the top 10 in strikeouts, innings pitched and games started. McAuliff ranks first in appearances and tied for first in saves.

In Big 12 games only, all three pitchers rank among the top 15 in ERA. The trio ranks in the top three in several conference only categories including wins (McAuliff and Purcey), appearances (McAuliff), innings pitched (Roberts), strikeouts (Purcey), saves (McAuliff) and games started (Roberts and Purcey).

As a unit, the trio has been credited with 15 of the team's 25 wins, posted an impressive 2.56 ERA and are responsible for 61 percent of OU's strikeouts this season. All three hurlers combine for an opponent batting average of .219.

Comeback Kids
This year's Sooner squad is quickly earning a reputation of being at its best when the chips are down. Eight of OU's last 12 wins, including a string of five in a row, have been of the come-from-behind variety. Beginning with the Baylor series opener and ending with the opening game at Kansas, OU was forced to overcome three one-run deficits, one two-run deficit, a three-run deficit and an eight-run deficit to secure wins. Additionally, the Sooners heroically pulled out five of the victories when either tied or trailing after seven innings.

Six of the wins were decided by one run which helped improve the team's season mark in one-run victories to 10-4. In comparison, the 2003 Sooner club only managed five one-run victories all of last year.

Most recently, Oklahoma was again forced to mount a comeback last weekend in the Texas A&M series finale. Facing a three run deficit heading into the fourth inning, the Sooners scored six runs in the frame to take the lead for good. Sophomore shortstop Ryan Rohlinger's first career grand slam home run provided the difference in the inning.

In the team's most dramatic comeback victory on the year, OU erased an 11-3 deficit to Baylor in the second game of the series to complete its largest comeback in seven years.

League Leader
Not only does Ole Sheldon own the top spot on several of the Sooners' offensive statistics sheet, but the junior first baseman is also making an assault on Big 12 Conference's leaderboard.

After recently leading the conference in hitting in league games only, Sheldon captured top honors in the category in games overall this week. His .389 average leads all Big 12 hitters as he also moved up two spots into a tie for third in hits.

The Roseburg, Ore., native has consistently appeared at or near the top of numerous conference games only categories as well throughout the first four weeks of conference play. Sheldon now ranks second in hitting, but leads the league in hits, is tied for second in doubles, ranks third in runs scored and on-base percentage, tied for fourth in total bases and tied for sixth in RBI.

Sheldon leads the Sooner squad in batting average, hits and doubles and RBI.

Tough On The Competition
By taking two out of three last weekend at Texas A&M, Oklahoma continued to own a solid season mark of 15-5 against teams that participated in the NCAA Tournament last year. The record also includes victories over nationally-ranked foes Cal State Fullerton, Arizona State, Georgia Tech, Texas and Oral Roberts.

OU is slated to face two more teams this season that advanced to regionals last year including Wichita State and Nebraska.

Additionally, OU is 7-3 this year against nationally-ranked teams.

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 sole possession of fourth place with his 72nd outing on Friday. Serving in both starting and relief roles during his first three seasons, the Owasso, Okla., native is averaging 20.7 appearances a season.

Roberts also broke into the school's top 10 in career strikeouts this season and currently stands in fourth place with 277 strikeouts. He has also quietly moved into third place on OU's all-time innings pitched list with 314, needing only seven more innings to take the lead.

After breaking the career appearances mark on Sunday, McAuliff also has a chance to break another school pitching record. The Stillwater, Okla., native currently stands in second place on the career saves list. He trails the leader, Jeff Bajenaru (1999-2000), by 12 saves.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

TCU Visits L. Dale Mitchell Park For Mid-Week Swing

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