Sooners Host West Virginia in Home Finale

Friday, May 13

Norman

6:30 p.m.

University of Oklahoma

West Virginia

Tickets

Photo by: Ty Russell

Sooners Host West Virginia in Home Finale

May 12, 2022 | Baseball

Tickets Watch Listen Live Stats #LaunchPad

Oklahoma

West Virginia

Friday-Sunday, May 13-15 / Norman, Okla. / L. Dale Mitchell Park

Watch | Radio | Live Stats | Game Notes | Twitter

Matchups
Game Time	OU Projected Starters	WVU Projected Starters
Friday, 6:30 p.m.	LHP Jake Bennett	RHP Jacob Watters
Saturday, 2 p.m.	RHP David Sandlin	LHP Ben Hampton
Sunday, Noon	RHP Cade Horton	TBA

First Pitch

• Oklahoma (29-17, 11-7 Big 12) is looking for its fourth straight Big 12 conference series victory when it plays host to West Virginia (29-18, 10-8 Big 12) in the final home series of the regular season this weekend at L. Dale Mitchell Park. Game times are 6:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and noon Sunday.
• The Sooners have won each of their last three Big 12 series, sweeping Kansas in Lawrence (April 22-24), winning a home series vs. Kansas State (April 29-May 1) and a road series at TCU (May 6-8). OU has won four of its six conference series overall. WVU has won three of its six Big 12 series this season.

Tickets/Promotions

• Tickets are available via SoonerSports.com. The L. Dale Mitchell Park ticket office and entrance gates will open 60 minutes prior to the scheduled game time. The ticket office and will call windows are located behind home plate, along W. Imhoff Rd.
• Friday is Oklahoma's annual GoMitchGo game, and the Mitchell Whitaker Award will be presented to a current player on the field prior to the game. OU men's basketball head coach Porter Moser will sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh inning stretch. Fans will be treated to a postgame fireworks show.
• Saturday is Country Day, featuring a mechanical bull for riding, games, prizes and music. Fans can grab a giveaway OU baseball bolo tie when entering the gate while supplies last.
• Sunday is Senior Day and OU baseball's graduation celebration. Seniors and graduating players will be honored on the field in a pregame ceremony. The fan giveaway will be a 2022 OU baseball cap.

Watch/Listen/Follow

• The Friday and Sunday games will be televised via SoonerSports.tv and the Saturday game will be televised on Bally Sports Oklahoma. Chad McKee will call Friday's series opener while Jack Benjamin will have Saturday and Sunday's broadcasts with George Frazier as the analyst on all three games.
• All three games will be broadcast on the Sooner Radio Network (locally on Sportstalk 99.3 FM/1400 AM KREF, Sportstalk1400.com and the Varsity Network app anywhere), with Toby Rowland on the call Friday and Sunday, and Todd Miller calling Saturday's action, with Blake Brewster as radio analyst all weekend.
• Live stats will be available at OUStats.com.

Leading Off

• Through 12 weeks of the season (46 games), the Sooners are 16-12 against the RPI top 100, including eight top-50 wins (8-9) and five top-25 wins (5-7). OU's overall strength of schedule is ranked 15th in the country while its non-conference SOS is ranked 25th nationally.
• Redshirt sophomore first baseman Blake Robertson leads the nation in walks (55) and ranks among the national and Big 12 leaders in several other categories: .527 OBP (fifth nationally; second in Big 12), 18 doubles (32nd nationally; second in Big 12), .367 batting average (97th nationally; fourth in Big 12).
• Since April 2 (22 games), Robertson has batted .425/.600/.713 (34 for 80) with 28 RBIs, 30 runs, 12 doubles, one triple, three home runs, 33 walks and 16 strikeouts. He has reached base in 32 straight games.
• Oklahoma is hitting .297 as a team and averaging 7.5 runs, 9.9 hits and 3.2 extra base hits per game (98 doubles, 38 home runs). The pitching staff has compiled a 5.48 ERA, 402 strikeouts to 176 walks and 442 hits in 412.1 innings and has allowed a .275 opponent batting average.
• West Virginia is hitting .264 as a team. The Mountaineers average 6.4 runs, 8.6 hits and 2.9 extra base hits per game (85 doubles, 43 home runs). The pitching staff has compiled a 4.72 ERA, 433 strikeouts to 217 walks and 400 hits in 411.2 innings and has allowed a .254 opponent batting average. WVU ranks second nationally with 143 stolen bases (in 179 attempts).
• Oklahoma is in its fifth season under the direction of head coach Skip Johnson (including the 2020 season that was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Johnson, who spent the 2017 season on staff as an assistant coach, has led the Sooners to a 141-97 record since taking over as head coach prior to the 2018 season.

Series History

• Oklahoma leads the all-time series against West Virginia 16-12. The Sooners hold a 6-3 advantage in Norman.
• OU won the series last season in Morgantown. WVU took the opener 7-1, before the Sooners bounced back in the next two games, 8-7 (11 innings) and 9-1, played as a doubleheader.
• Oklahoma swept the last series played against West Virginia in Norman in 2018 and won two of three games during the 2016 season.

#LaunchPad

• The #LaunchPad is back for 2022. For the second straight year, pledged donations to a customized dollar amount for every homer that OU baseball hits in 2022 will go towards the the stadium renovation project. For more information, visit TheSoonerClub.com/LaunchPad.
• All donations from the Pledge Per Home Run Campaign will be treated as charitable donations supporting either the OU Softball Stadium Project or the OU Baseball Stadium Renovation Project and are tax-deductible.

Noting the Sooners

• For the season, Blake Robertson leads the Sooners with a .367 batting average (61 for 166), 55 walks, 18 doubles and a .527 OBP. Graham has team bests of 12 home runs, 45 RBIs and 53 runs scored while batting .339 (62 for 183). Tredaway is batting .342 (65 for 190) with a 43 RBIs, 12 doubles, three homers and 36 runs scored and Jimmy Crooks is hitting .308 (49 for 159) with 36 walks, 29 RBIs and 32 runs scored.
• In Big 12 conference play (18 games), Robertson is batting .422 (27 for 64) with 11 doubles, 19 RBIs, 25 runs scored and 28 walks. He has posted a .606 OBP in Big 12 play. Wallace Clark is batting .396 (19 for 48) in 16 games and 12 starts, and has notched eight RBIs, 13 runs scored, five doubles and 10 walks. Graham is batting .363 (29 for 80) with 33 RBIs, seven home runs, six doubles, three triples and 27 runs scored.
• Crooks has thrown out 12 of 47 potential base stealers this season, including seven in Big 12 conference play. Since April 23, Crooks has thrown out six of 11 runners stealing.
• Robertson has reached base in every game this season, except for one (second game of a March 13 doubleheader vs. UTSA), and even in that contest he drove in two runs. In other words, Robertson has had at least one productive plate appearance in every single game this season.
• Since April 10 (17 games), Peyton Graham has hit .394 (28 of 71) with 21 RBIs and 27 runs scored. 12 of his 17 walks this season and five of his 12 home runs have come in the last 17 games. He has improved his batting average from .304 to .339 during that time.
• Over the first 10 games of the season, Oklahoma scored a total of 35 runs (average of 3.5 per game) and did not score more than six runs in any game. Since then, the Sooners have scored 312 runs over the last 36 games (8.7 per game). OU has scored at least seven runs in 28 of those 36 games, and has posted a 24-12 record in that span (21-7 when scoring at least seven runs during the same timeframe).

Recapping the Last Week

• Oklahoma won its Big 12 series at TCU last weekend in Fort Worth, and had the midweek off for final exams.
• The Sooners scored first in all three games. On Friday, OU held a 3-1 lead until the fifth inning when TCU took the lead with seven runs. Trailing 9-3, Oklahoma chipped away in the late to pull within 9-7.
• On Saturday, OU took a 3-0 lead in the third inning and kept adding runs, building leads of 6-0 and 10-2 before making it 11-4 in the seventh. OU scored three runs in the third and fifth innings and four runs in the sixth. David Sandlin struck out three and walked one over 5.2 innings. Chazz Martinez got the final out of the sixth and closed out the game with 3.1 innings to earn his first save of the season.
• On Sunday, the Sooners scored four runs in the first inning and carried the lead through the end of the game. OU held a 4-1 lead after TCU scored in the fifth inning until Jackson Nicklaus doubled home a run in the eighth inning.
• The pitching trio of Cade Horton, Carter Campbell and Trevin Michael combined to strike out seven batters. Horton turned in his longest start of the season (4.2 innings). Campbell (second win of the season) and Michael (seventh save) combined for 4.1 hitless frames in relief.

Base Snatchers

• The Sooners have registered 110 stolen bases in 140 attempts through 46 games this season. OU surpassed its total from all of last year (46 steals) in the 18th game of this season.
• This is the first time an Oklahoma team has collected at least 100 stolen bases since 1996 (104) and the current total of 110 steals is the most since the 1989 season (168). This is the 13th time since 1962 that an OU team has totaled at least 100 stolen bases in a single season. The school record for steals is 192, set in 1975.
• Oklahoma ranks seventh nationally in stolen bases (110) and steals per game (2.4). Both figures rank second in the Big 12, only to West Virginia's 143 steals and average of 3.0 steals per game.
• Peyton Graham leads OU with 20 stolen bases, while Tanner Tredaway has 18 steals, Kendall Pettis has 16 and Blake Robertson has 12 steals. Additionally, catcher Jimmy Crooks has nine steals and John Spikerman has notched eight stolen bases in his 13 games. A total of 14 players have recorded at least one stolen base this season.
• Graham's 20 steals are the most by a single player since Erik Ross had 20 steals in 2012. This is the first time four Sooners have recorded double digit steals in the same season since 2010. That season, all four players (Chris Ellison [24], Caleb Bushyhead [14], Danny Black [14] and Erik Ross [12]) also had at least 12 steals.
• Oklahoma has registered at least 10 steals in a game twice this season. OU collected 11 steals against Wichita State on Feb. 22 (one shy of the school record set against East Central [Okla.] University in 1937), and stole 10 bases on April 16 against Pacific.
• On five occasions this season, a player has stolen three bases in a game. Three players — Graham, Pettis and Tredaway — each stole three bases in the Feb. 22 game vs. Wichita State. Graham notched three steals again vs. Texas on April 2 and Tredaway had three steals on April 6 at TCU. Prior to Feb. 22, no single Sooner had stolen three bases in a game since Ross against Hartford in 2012.