Sooners Begin Big 12 Championship Wednesday

Wednesday, May 25

Arlington, Texas

7:30 p.m.

University of Oklahoma

West Virginia

Tickets

2020, 04.14.20, Globe Life Field, Exterior, Sunrise

Sooners Begin Big 12 Championship Wednesday

May 24, 2022 | Baseball

²²Oklahoma

West Virginia

2022 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship / Wednesday-Sunday, May 25-29 / Arlington, Texas / Globe Life Field

Watch | Radio | Live Stats | Game Notes | Twitter

Matchups
Game Time	OU Projected Starters	WVU Projected Starters
Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.	RHP Carson Atwood	RHP Jacob Watters

First Pitch

• No. 3 seed Oklahoma (33-20, 15-9 Big 12) opens the 2022 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship against No. 6 seed West Virginia (33-20, 14-10 Big 12) on Wednesday at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. Game time is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
• The winner of Wednesday's finale between OU and WVU will play the winner of No. 2 seed Texas Tech and No. 7 seed Kansas State at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. The respective losing teams will play at 12:30 p.m. Thursday.
• Oklahoma closed the regular season by winning its last five Big 12 conference series (and six straight weekends overall), including road series at TCU and Texas Tech. OU's 15 conference wins are its most since the 2010 season.
• The Sooners have already played nine games at Globe Life Field this season, and have posted a 5-4 record in the building. OU opened the season at the State Farm College Baseball Showdown, and also played series against Northwestern State and Texas at the Texas Rangers' home ballpark.

Watch/Listen/Follow

• The game will be televised via Big 12 Now on ESPN+, with Clay Matvick and Greg Swindell calling the action.
• The 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 and Blake Brewster on the radio call.
• Live stats will be available at OUStats.com.

Leading Off

• Oklahoma has posted a 15-12 record against the RPI top 50, a mark that includes five wins vs. RPI top 25 teams (5-7), and is 20-14 against the RPI top 100. OU's overall strength of schedule is ranked 14th in the country while its non-conference SOS is ranked 35th nationally. Oklahoma's 15 victories against the RPI top 50 are most among Big 12 schools.
• Redshirt sophomore first baseman Blake Robertson leads the Big 12 and ranks second nationally in walks (61) and walks per game (1.15). He ranks among the national and Big 12 leaders with his .498 OBP (21st nationally; second in Big 12) and 22 doubles (15th nationally; leads Big 12). Peyton Graham ranks third in the Big 12 and ranks 38th nationally by averaging 1.2 runs scored per game, and his 61 total runs scored rank fourth in the Big 12 and 42nd in the nation.
• Oklahoma is hitting .298 as a team and averaging 7.8 runs, 10.0 hits and 3.3 extra base hits per game (113 doubles, 50 home runs). The pitching staff has compiled a 5.80 ERA, 463 strikeouts to 203 walks and 526 hits in 471.1 innings and has allowed a .283 opponent batting average.
• West Virginia is hitting .271 as a team. The Mountaineers average 6.6 runs, 8.9 hits and 3.0 extra base hits per game (100 doubles, 48 home runs). The pitching staff has compiled a 5.06 ERA, 478 strikeouts to 253 walks and 459 hits in 462.1 innings and has allowed a .258 opponent batting average. WVU ranks second nationally with 154 stolen bases.
• The Sooners have scored double-digit runs in eight of its last 15 conference games and in 11 of its last 23 games overall. OU scored at least 40 runs in three series of its last five Big 12 series (46 vs. Kansas, 43 vs. Kansas State and 40 vs. West Virginia) and in the other two, scored 23 runs (at TCU) and 24 runs (at Texas Tech).
• Oklahoma has drawn 127 more free passes this season than its opponents. OU batters have drawn 307 walks and been hit by a pitch 75 times this season, totaling 382 free passes. The Sooners allowed 203 walks and 53 hit batters (255 free passes).
• 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 145-100 record since taking over as head coach prior to the 2018 season.

Series History

• Oklahoma leads the all-time series against West Virginia 18-13. The series is tied 2-2 in neutral site meetings.
• The Sooners won two of three meetings against the Mountaineers May 13-15 in Norman. OU won 15-2 on Friday and 17-7 on Sunday while WVU won the middle game 9-8.
• Oklahoma won the first meeting between the schools 5-2 in Eugene, Ore., during the 2012 season. OU also won a Big 12 tournament contest in Tulsa in 2015, 6-1. WVU won two meetings during the 2016 Big 12 Championship, 6-0 and 11-1, in Oklahoma City.

#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

• Peyton Graham's 14 home runs are the most by a Sooner since the 2010 season when three players notched at least 15 home runs (Garrett Buechele [17], Cameron Seitzer [16] and Max White [15]).
• Graham, a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist and first-team All-Big 12 selection, has been particularly hot at the plate in the second half of the season. In 24 games since April 10, he has hit .370 (37 of 100) with 29 RBIs and 35 runs scored. He has posted a .710 slugging percentage and a .476 OBP while recording 16 of his 21 walks and seven of his 14 home runs. He is 17 of 18 in stolen base attempts over the last 24 contests.
• Jimmy Crooks has thrown out 16 of 52 potential base stealers this season, including 11 of 34 in Big 12 conference play. Since April 23, Crooks has thrown out nine of 22 runners stealing. He threw out three runners stealing in four attempts in the regular season series vs. West Virginia, which ranks second nationally in stolen bases.
• Blake Robertson has reached base in 51 of his 53 games played this season. He did not reach base during the second game of a March 13 doubleheader vs. UTSA (which preceded his 35-game reached base streak) and May 16 at Wichita State. Even in the UTSA contest he drove in two runs. In other words, Robertson has had at least one productive plate appearance in all but one game this season (each of the first 49 contests). He reached base in 35 consecutive games from March 15 through May 15.
• Since April 2 (29 games), Robertson has batted .358/.533/.633 (39 for 109) with 32 RBIs, 34 runs, 16 doubles, one triple, four home runs, 39 walks and 22 strikeouts.
• Jake Bennett has lasted at least 6.0 innings in nine of his 13 starts and allowed three or fewer runs nine times.
• Wallace Clark has reached base in each of his last 20 games, and in 26 of the 32 games in which he has appeared this season. The true freshman third baseman from Tulsa, Okla., led the Sooners in batting in Big 12 conference play with a .377 average
• Kendall Pettis ended the regular season on a seven-game hitting streak. Kendall Pettis ended the regular season on a seven-game hitting streak. During that time, he has raised his batting average 76 points (from .182 to .258), hitting .478 (11 for 23) with two doubles, seven RBIs, seven runs scored and four stolen bases. He missed 20 starts from March 13 through April 19 with an injury (he made seven pinch-running and late-innings outfield appearances between those starts).
• 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 376 runs over the last 43 games (8.7 per game). OU has scored at least seven runs in 33 of those 43 games, and has posted a 28-15 record in that span (25-8 when scoring at least seven this season).

Recapping Last Weekend

• Oklahoma won two of three games at Texas Tech last weekend to conclude the regular season. It was OU's first series victory in Lubbock since the 2012 season.
• In the opener on Thursday, the Sooners blasted six home runs and took advantage of six stolen bases on their way to a 13-8 victory. John Spikerman led off the game with his first career home run and the Sooners overcame an early 4-1 deficit by scoring 12 consecutive runs before Tech answered in the ninth inning. OU took the lead on a two-run home run by Peyton Graham in the fifth and hit three homers in a four-run sixth inning. Jackson Nicklaus homered in the third and Tanner Tredaway, Jimmy Crooks and Brett Squires homered in the sixth. Jake Bennett went 6.0 innings, struck out four and walked one.
• Blake Robertson's two-run first-inning home run ignited OU on Friday, as it opened 9-2 lead after five innings on its way to a 9-6 victory. Wallace Clark, Graham and Kendall Pettis all finished with two hits and two RBIs, and Tredaway had two hits and scored three runs. David Sandlin struck out seven and allowed two runs over 5.0 innings. Trevin Michael struck out three over 2.0 frames to earn his eighth save of the season.
• Oklahoma started quickly again on Saturday by scoring two runs in the first inning, but Texas Tech responded with five runs and went on to win 10-2 in the series finale

Base Snatchers

• The Sooners have registered 130 stolen bases in 163 attempts during the 2022 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 130 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 sixth nationally in stolen bases (130) and steals per game (2.45). Both figures rank second in the Big 12, only to West Virginia's 154 steals and average of 2.91 steals per game.
• Peyton Graham leads OU with 27 stolen bases, while Tanner Tredaway has 22 steals, Kendall Pettis has 20, Blake Robertson has 12 steals and catcher Jimmy Crooks has 10 steals. Additionally, John Spikerman has notched nine stolen bases in his 19 games. A total of 14 players have recorded at least one stolen base this season.
• Graham's 27 steals are the most by a single player since current OU volunteer assistant coach Reggie Willits had 37 steals in 2003.
• This is the first time five Sooners have recorded double digit steals in the same season since 1994, which was also the last time three players notched at least 20 stolen bases. That national title-winning group included: Rick Gutierrez (32 steals), Chip Glass (27 steals), Aric Thomas (23 steals), Jerry Whittaker (14 steals) and Rich Hills (10 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 six 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. Tredaway has three games this season with three stolen bases (also May 6 at TCU and May 20 at Texas Tech). Graham notched three steals vs. Texas on April 2. Prior to Feb. 22, no single Sooner had stolen three bases in a game since Erik Ross against Hartford in 2012.