Top-25 Showdown: Oklahoma vs. Texas in Norman

April 12, 2018 | Baseball

By: Athletics Communications

April 13-15 | Norman, Okla. | L. Dale Mitchell Park

¹⁷Texas

¹¹Oklahoma

Tickets

SoonerSports.tv (Fri.)

ESPNU/ESPN2 (Sat./Sun)

KREF 99.3/1400

Live Stats

Notes

Twitter

Weekend Pitching Match-Ups
First Pitch	Oklahoma	Texas
Fri. 6:30 p.m.	RHP-Jake Irvin (5-0, 2.77)	RHP-Nolan Kingham (4-2, 4.14)
>>>Last Start	at TCU (4/6): ND, 5.0 IP 4 ER, 5 K	vs. BU (4/6): ND, 2.0 IP, 2 ER, 1 K
Sat. 8 p.m.	RHP-Devon Perez (4-0, 2.61)	RHP-Chase Shugart (3-2, 4.86)
>>>Last Start	at TCU (4/8): W, 5.2 IP, 3 ER, 2 K	vs. BU (4/7): W, 7.0 IP, o ER, 1 K
Sun. 1 p.m.	RHP-Nathan Wiles (1-1, 4.04)	RHP-Blair Henley (5-3, 2.92)
>>>Last Start	at TCU (4/8): ND, 5.2 IP, 3 ER, 3 K	vs. BU (4/8): W, 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 K

Oklahoma Sooners
Record: 25-11 (8-1 Big 12) Coach: Skip Johnson (1st Season) Career Record/Years: 25-11/1 Rank: 11^CBN/15^BA/16^D1B/17^USA/18^N

Texas Longhorns
Record: 22-13 (9-3 Big 12) Coach: David Pierce (2nd Season) Career Record/Years: 256-146/7 Rank: 17^CBN/24^BA/27^N/RV^USA

On the Air
TV/Stream	SoonerSports.tv (Fri.) Chad McKee George Frazier ESPNU (Sat.) ESPN2 (Sun.) Clay Matvick Kyle Peterson
Radio	KREF 1400 AM TuneIn Radio App Ed Murray (Fri.) Toby Rowland

Player to Watch
RF-Steele Walker Walker has homered six times in the last seven games to push his season total to eight. He homered twice at TCU (4/8) and twice against Little Rock (4/10) for his second and third career two-HR games.

FIRST PITCH

The Oklahoma baseball team plays its second to last home series this weekend as Texas visits L. Dale Mitchell Park for the Red River Showdown. The No. 11 Sooners host the No. 17 Longhorns for game on Friday night at 6:30 p.m. Voice of the Sooners Toby Rowland will anchor the coverage, calling games two and three locally on Sportstalk 99.3 FM/1400 AM with Wednesday's game airing across the Sooner Sports Network. The games can also be streamed online at Sportstalk1400.com or on the TuneIn mobile app. Ed Murray will fill in on the call Friday night. Veteran OU broadcaster Chad McKee (pbp) and former OU and MLB pitcher George Frazier (color) will be on the call Friday night on SoonerSports.tv. The remaining games will be televised nationally; Saturday on ESPNU and Sunday on ESPN2. Clay Matvick (pbp) and Kyle Peterson (color) will be in the booth. Both televised game can be streamed via the WatchESPN app and online.

ABOUT THE SOONERS

No. 11 Oklahoma has won 11 of 13 since the opening of conference play to improve to 25-11 overall and 8-1 in the Big 12. The Sooners stand atop the conference standings and lead the league with a .305 batting average and 2.44 earned run average. Junior right fielder Steele Walker is hitting a team-high .338 and slugging .571 with seven doubles, eight home runs and 33 RBI. Junior third baseman Brylie Ware is second on the team at .321 with 12 doubles and 25 RBI. On the mound, junior right-handed pitcher Jake Irvin anchors the rotation from the Friday role with a 5-0 record, 2.77 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 48.2 innings. Senior RHP Devon Perez starts on Saturday with a 4-0 mark and 2.61 ERA. Oklahoma is 21-5 at home this season with sweeps over Baylor and West Virginia. The Sooners went on the road last weekend to take two from TCU and get off to their best start all-time in Big 12 play.

PROMOTIONS

Friday will be the Sooners' annual "Go Mitch Go" night honoring the memory of Mitchell Whitaker. The team will wear blue wristbands and utilize blue bases in support of the fight against childhood cancer. Fans attending both the OU football spring game and Saturday night's baseball game are eligible to show their football ticket at the baseball concession stand for $1 beverages. "Sunday Funday" wraps up the weekend, which includes a post-game kids run the bases activitiy.

THE FORECAST

Projected Starters
OU Lineup	BA/OBP/SLG	Notes
LF-Cade Harris	.299/.446/.496	Second in the NCAA in walks (35) and sixth in runs (41).
SS-Brandon Zaragoza	.285/.355/.314	Made 84 consecutive start at shortstop.
RF-Steele Walker	.338/.444/.571	Hit six home runs in the last seven games.
CF-Kyler Murray	.306/.417/.537	First career two-HR game at TCU (4/6).
C-Brady Lindsly	.320/.404/.443	Walk-off double to beat Baylor (3/30) in the 10th.
3B-Brylie Ware	.321/.383/.438	Career-high four hit svs. Oral Roberts (4/11).
2B-Kyle Mendenhall	.301/.346/.426	Fifth player in OU history to turn 100 double plays.
1B-Cade Cavalli	.238/.377/.362	Hit second HR of the season vs. Baylor (3/31).
DH-Tyler Hardman	.256/.320/.360	Hitting .327 (18-for-55) since March 13.

OU-TEXAS CONNECTION

First-year Sooner head coach Skip Johnson arrived in Norman as the pitching coach for the 2017 season. He was promoted to head coach on June 19, 2017. Johnson spent the 10 prior seasons as the pitching coach at Texas under Augie Garrido. OU assistant coach Clay Van Hook played as an infielder at Texas from 2005-07. He then coached the 2008 season for the Longhorns as a student assistant.

BY THE NUMBERS: THE SOONERS VS. UT

Domenic DeRenzo: A .250 (4-for-16) hitter with three RBI, two doubles, a home run and one multi-hit game in four starts. Dylan Grove: Struck out 10 across 5.2 innings in a 5-3 loss (4/7/17). Cade Harris: Hitting .286 (4-for-14) in six games, including three starts, with a .412 OBP. Jake Irvin: No-decision in 3.2 innings with two runs, on earned, in first start back from injury (4/8/17). Steele Walker: Hit first home run in Austin (4/7/17) by a Sooner since Max White (5/1/11)...five RBI in seven games.

CRIMSON OVER ORANGE IN NORMAN

On April 3, 2016, Oklahoma claimed its first series win over Texas at home since a sweep in 1998. OU won the game, 4-3. Sheldon Neuse hit his team-leading fifth home run of the season in the first inning. Jake Elliott matched his season-high with six strikeouts and Ben Hollas provided the walk-off hit, a RBI-single to right in the ninth. The Sooners won the first game of the series, 6-1, before the Longhorns evened things up with a 5-3 win on Saturday. Chris Andritsos pitched 7.2 innings on one-run ball in the opener and was backed by home runs from Jack Flansburg, Austin O'Brien and Domenic DeRenzo.

Next Home Game
Oklahoma vs. Kansas State May 4-6 \| Norman, Okla. The Sooners play their final home regular season games against Kansas State at the beginning of May. TICKETS

SCOUTING THE LONGHORNS

No. 17 Texas is 22-13 overall and 9-3 in the Big 12 following a sweep of Baylor. Second baseman Kody Clemens is hitting a team-best .367 with nine home runs, which is tied for the league lead. He is slugging .688 and driven in 35 runs. Shortstop David Hamilton is tied for the Big 12 lead in stolen bases with 18 on a .260 average and .414 on-base percentage. Right-hander Nolan Kingham, who went just two innings last Friday vs. the Bears, sit atop the Longhorn rotation. He is 4-2 with a 4.14 ERA. As a team, Texas, which is 4-7 on the road this year, owns a 4.38 ERA.

ALL-TIME VS. TEXAS

Last 10 Meetings
Year	Result	Location
2017	Loss, 4-8	OKC
	Win, 2-1	Austin
	Loss, 3-9	Austin
	Loss, 3-5	Austin
2016	Win, 4-3	Norman
	Loss, 3-5	Norman
	Win, 6-1	Norman
2015	Win, 3-2	Austin
	Loss, 1-4	Austin
	Win, 3-2 (12)	Austin

The Longhorns leads the Sooners in the all-time series, 130-52-2. Oklahoma had won back-to-back series against Texas until falling in two of three down in Austin last April. Oklahoma had won three of the last four series and its 2013 victory was the first over Texas in 15 years. OU's 2015 and 2016 series wins were the first in back-to-back years over UT since 1997 and 1998. The two sides have met in the College World Series six time; 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1992. Oklahoma twice defeated Texas in the NCAA Central Regional in Austin to advance to the CWS and win the 1994 National Championship. Ten of the last 16 meeting between the two sides have been decided by two runs or less with the Sooners holding a 6-4 advantage in those games.

LAST TIME THEY MET

Texas scored three runs in the first and two in the third to race out to a 5-0 lead over the three-seeded Sooners in the 2017 Big 12 Championship opener at Bricktown Ballpark in OKC. The six-seed Longhorns moved on to the winner's bracket with an 8-4 victory. Kacy Clemens homered twice, drove in four and was 3-for-5. Renae Martinez hit a solo home run for Oklahoma.