Baseball Season Marches On Tuesday vs. UCA

Mar. 1 | Norman, Okla. | L. Dale Mitchell Park

Central Arkansas

Oklahoma

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Oklahoma Sooners
Record: 3-5 (0-0 Big 12) Coach: Pete Hughes (3rd Season) Career Record/Years: 590-446-2/19 Rank: NR

Central Arkansas Bears
Record: 5-3 (0-0 Southland) Coach: Allen Gum (4th Season) Career Record/Years: 383-198/11 Rank: NR

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IF-Kyle Mendenhall Mendenhall hit his first career home run on Saturday and enters Tuesday with a team-high seven RBI; all coming in the last four games.

NORMAN, Okla. – Oklahoma baseball returns home briefly for a Tuesday midweek contest against Central Arkansas. First pitch is set for 4:00 pm from L. Dale Mitchell Park.

The Sooners are back in Norman looking to snap a three-game losing streak following a sweep at Sam Houston State over the weekend. Oklahoma is 3-5 on the season, including a 3-2 mark at home. Junior Jack Flansburg has started all eight games with at least one start at all four infield positions. He has started the season on an eight-game hit streak; batting .414 (12-for-29) with a 1.078 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage). Sophomore infielder Kyle Mendenhall enters Tuesday hitting .300 (6-for-20) and has driven in a team-high seven runs; all in the last four games. Mendenhall drove in a career-high three against Abilene Christian (2/24) and hit his first career home run at Sam Houston State (2/27). Freshman Chris Andritsos (1-0) will make his second start on the hill for Oklahoma. He got the win vs. Abilene last week in five innings of one-run ball on just one hit and one walk, while striking out five. Andritsos has also made starts at first base and DH with a .250 (2-for-8) average, .333 OBP and one RBI. The OU bullpen owns a 1.88 team earned run average in 38.1 innings. In 35 complete innings pitched, Sooner relievers have totaled 28 shutout frames. Senior Keaton Hernandez has pitched a team-high 8.2 innings out of the pen to a 1.04 ERA, while freshman Austin Hansen has thrown 5.2-scoreless.

Central Arkansas is 5-3 on the season, stringing together five consecutive wins after getting swept by Missouri State in their season opening series. The Bears pitching staff allowed just 11 runs in their four-game sweep over Eastern Illinois. This is the team's first trip away from home on the season, coming off a 2015 season where they finished with a 12-13 road record. Overall, the Bears were 29-24 in 2015 with a 16-14 mark in the Southland Conference. Infielder Logan Preston has been a catalyst for the Bears this season, hitting .448 with six runs scored. Outfielder Tyler Langley (.323, 10-31) and catcher Justin McCarty (.308, 8-26) have also been contributors. Head Coach Allen Gum is now in his fourth season at the helm for UCA, which includes a NCAA Regional appearance in 2013, a year in which the Bears finished with a school-record 42 wins.

Pitching Match-Up

Game	Oklahoma	Central Arkansas
Tuesday	RHP-Chris Andritsos, Fr. (1-0, 1.80, 5 K)	RHP-Hunter Neal, Jr. (0-0, 5.68, 4)

All-Time vs. UCA

This marks OU's third meeting with Central Arkansas, with wins over the Bears coming in 2009 (12-6) and 2015 (7-0). Both meetings were in Norman. Last season, Oklahoma outhit Central Arkansas, 14-5, on March 31. Lefty Adam Choplick struck out 10 and allowed just three hits in six innings of scoreless ball. The Sooners put up a pair of three-run innings and got home runs from Kolbey Carpenter, who drove in three for the day, and Chris Shaw.

New Field; Same Tradition

Completion of the new synthetic turf field at L. Dale Mitchell Park on January 15 made OU the sixth team in the Big 12 with a turf playing surface. The surface is made of AstroTurf® 3D Xtreme and covers 150,000 square feet. The turf holds 351,000 lbs. of sand, 180,400 lbs. of rubber, covers 4,100 linear feet of drainage and can handle 4-6 inches of rain per hour. Among 61 power conference teams, 26 play on a turf field. Since 2011, 21 NCAA Regionals have been hosted on a turf playing field, while 12 teams with a home field of synthetic turf have appeared in the College World Series over that time.

Signature Class Grades Well

At the arrival of the Sooners' 21-player incoming class in August, Pete Hughes stated, “The 2015 class had to pivotal in the growth of our program and the overall picture of our plan to return to Omaha. This is our signature class.”

• No. 10 recruiting class by Perfect Game.
• No. 13 recruiting class by Baseball America.
• No. 16 recruiting class by D1Baseball.com.
• No. 20 recruiting class by Collegiate Baseball News.
• 2015 Draft Picks:
Ryan Madden (Rockies-35th Rd/1,037th Pick)
Jake Irvin (Twins-37th Rd/1,100th Pick)
Domenic DeRenzo (Cubs-40th Rd/1,193rd Pick)
•All-Americans:
Chris Andritsos (Collegiate Baseball News 1st Team)
Kyle Tyler (Collegiate Baseball News 1st Team)

Up Next

The Sooners are back on the road this weekend for the Dodger Stadium Classic in Los Angeles. Oklahoma visits USC on Friday and UCLA on Saturday before facing Mississippi State at Dodger Stadium on Sunday.