OU Begins Fall Practice Thursday

NORMAN, Okla. - The Oklahoma baseball team, after a month of individual workouts, will begin team practices for the fall on Thursday, Sept. 21 under second year head coach Sunny Golloway.

The first intrasquad scrimmage, which is open to the public, is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 23 at 11 a.m. at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman.

The annual Red-White Series, which marks the end of the fall season, will be played on Oct. 17-19 in a best-of-three series format.

In 2006, the Sooners finished 45-22 overall (17-10 Big 12) and were one win shy of advancing to the program's 10th College World Series after losing the final game of the Houston Super Regional to then-No. 1 Rice.

2007 Fall Prospectus (PDF) | 2007 Roster | 2006 Stats

Sixteen letterwinners, including five position starters and two starting pitchers, return from last year's squad that was ranked as high as No. 9 by Baseball America in the final poll of 2006.

Juniors Aaron Reza and Jackson Williams return with the most starting experience from last season. Below is a look at the returning starters and the other returning letterwinners:

No., Player	Cl.-Pos.	GP-GS	2006 Stats
#2 Aaron Reza	Jr. - INF	63-56	.318, 33 RBI, .996 FLD%
#13 Aaron Ivey	Sr. - OF	49-35	.279, 10 RBI, 9 SB
#20 Jackson Williams	Jr. - C	64-59	.292, 36 RBI, 15 doubles
#21 Joe Dunigan	Jr. - INF	43-33	.297, 27 RBI, 1.000 FLD%
#33 Joseph Hughes	Sr. - OF	43-22	.370, 20 RBI, 1.000 FLD%
#16 Ryan Mottern	Jr. - RHP	13-8	4-2, 7.88 ERA, 37 IP, 36 SO
#38 Brad Burns*	Jr. - RHP	16-13	2-1, 4.50 ERA, 66 IP, 48 SO

* Saw limited action in 2006 due to injury (7 apps., 2 starts, 0-0, 8.38 ERA) ... stats listed from 2005 season.

OTHER RETURNERS
Joel Pedretti (Sr., INF), Cory Williamson (Sr., OF/DH), Nich Conaway (So., RHP), Brandon Moss (So., INF/DH), Jarod Freeman (Jr., INF/DH), Matt Lovelady (Sr., RHP), Chris Henry (Sr., LHP) and Jimmy Rollins (Sr., LHP).

NEWCOMERS
Joining the 16 letterwinners from the 2006 team are 22 newcomers, led by Devin Shepherd, a fifth round draft choice in the 2006 MLB Draft by the Minnesota Twins. Coach Golloway believes that this is the best group he has helped recruit at OU, which includes the 2005 class that was ranked in the top ten by Baseball America.

Five other newcomers in the incoming class were also drafted at one time in their career and below is a look at those players and the rest of the 2007 class:

No., Player	Cl.-Pos.	Highlights
#3 Danny Grande	Fr. - RHP	All-State
#4 Tyson Seng	Fr. - INF	All-State
#5 Mike Gosse	Jr. - INF/OF	JUCO All-American
#7 Vincent Biancamano	Jr. - INF	2004 MLB Draft (35th round)
#8 Aljay Davis	Jr. - OF/INF	2005 MLB Draft (29th round)
#9 Bryant Hernandez	Jr. - INF	2005 Area Code Games
#10 Devin Shepherd	Fr. - OF	2006 MLB Draft (5th round)
#11 Antwonie Hubbard	Fr. - RHP	2006 MLB Draft (12th round)
#14 Andrew Doyle	Fr. - RHP	2006 MLB Draft (39th round)
#15 Aaron Baker	Fr. - C/INF	2006 MLB Draft (37th round)
#31 Heath Taylor	Jr. - LHP	JUCO All-Conference
#25 Bryan Groth	Fr. - C	All-State
#35 Zach Hedges	Fr. - INF	All-State
#37 Stephen Porlier	So. - RHP	7-5 in 2006 at Tulane
#26 Garrett Richards	Fr. - RHP	All-City Team

OTHER NEWCOMERS
Kyle Biery (Jr., OF), Andrew Roberts (Jr., OF), Elliot Blair (Fr., OF), Zach Sawyer (Jr., LHP), Hunter London (So., OF), Patrick Green (Fr., RHP) and Joseph Newman (Sr., OF).

Damon Minor

MINOR JOINS COACHING STAFF
Also new to the Sooners in 2007 is a familiar name in OU history, Damon Minor. The former Sooner and Major Leaguer will join the Oklahoma baseball staff as a volunteer coach for the 2007 season and will help with the OU hitters. Minor played at Oklahoma from 1993-1996 and most recently was playing in Japan for the Rakuten Eagles, where he battled injuries before announcing his retirement.

After helping OU win the 1994 National Championship and make a return trip to the College World Series in 1995, Minor, a 1996 All-America Honorable Mention, was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 1996.

With the Giants, the former Sooner played on the Major League level from 2000-04. He enjoyed his best season in 2002 when San Francisco won the National League Championship and advanced to the World Series. During that season, Minor saw time in 83 games and connected for 10 home runs and 24 runs batted in.

Minor still ranks in the top 10 on several of OU's all-time career lists, including; games played (202), RBI (171), HR (39), extra-base hits (90) and walks (139). In his final two seasons, Minor hit over .340 and hit 24 home runs and drove in 106 runs.

WHO's GONE
Chuckie Caufield, Sr., OF
-2006 Second Team All-Big 12, .351 BA, 9 HR, 50 RBI, 19 SB

A.T. Cole, Jr., RHP
-2006: five appearances, 0-0, 6.23 ERA

Kevin Duke, So., LHP
-2006: four appearances, 0-0, 8.10 ERA

Arin Fowble, Fr., INF
-Six games played, .167 BA

Steven Guerra, Sr., RHP
-2006 Second Team All-Big 12, 11-4, 4.04 ERA

Nate Hammons, Fr., LHP
-2006: 18 appearances, 2-0, 6.06 ERA

Kody Kaiser, So. OF
-2006: .306 BA, 7 HR, 42 RBI

Daniel McCutchen, Sr., RHP
-2006 Second Team All-Big 12, 10-8, 4.06 ERA

Russell Raley, Sr., INF
-2006 Second Team All-Big 12, 360 BA, 28 RBI, 7 SB

Freddy Rodriguez, Sr., INF
-2006: 49 starts, .311 BA, 37 RBI

Ryan Rohlinger, Sr., INF
-2006 Second Team All-Big 12, .387 BA, 13 HR, 67 RBI, 8 SB

Scott Rooker, Sr., OF
-2006:26 games played, .136 BA

P.J. Sandoval, Sr., RHP
-2006: 17 starts, 6-5, 5.47 ERA

John Shackelford, Sr., C/DH
-2006: 18 games played, .133 BA

Kevin Smith, Sr., INF/DH
-2006 Second Team All-Big 12, .319 BA, 9 HR, 70 RBI

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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