Sooners Begin MCWS Friday

Oklahoma

Texas A&M

NCAA Men's College World Series / Friday, June 17 / 1 p.m. CT / Omaha, Neb. / Charles Schwab Field Omaha

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Matchups
Game Time	OU Projected Starter	TAMU Projected Starter
Friday, 1 p.m. CT	LHP Jake Bennett	RHP Nathan Dettmer

First Pitch

• Oklahoma (42-22, 15-9 Big 12) opens the 2022 NCAA Men's College World Series against Texas A&M (42-18, 19-11 SEC) at 1 p.m. CT Friday at Charles Schwab Field Omaha in Omaha, Neb.
• The Sooners are making their 11th Men's College World Series appearance, and first since 2010. The Aggies are making their seventh appearance in the Men's College World Series, and first since 2017.
• Oklahoma reached the 2022 MCWS by winning the Gainesville Regional and the Blacksburg Super Regional with a combined 5-2 record. The Sooners defeated both host schools (Florida and Virginia Tech) in two out of three meetings after winning their postseason opener against Liberty. Texas A&M reached the MCWS by winning the College Station Regional (over Oral Roberts, Louisiana and TCU) and the College Station Super Regional over Louisville.
• Oklahoma earned the Big 12 Conference automatic bid to the 2022 NCAA Baseball Championship by winning the Big 12 Championship at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. It was OU's third Big 12 tournament title (also won in 1997 and 2013). Texas A&M received an at-large bid out of the Southeastern Conference.
• This is Oklahoma's 39th NCAA postseason appearance, and second under head coach Skip Johnson. The Sooners, which reached the postseason in Johnson's first season at the helm in 2018, are 7-4 in the NCAA Tournament under the fifth-year skipper.

Watch/Listen/Follow

• The game will be televised on ESPN with Karl Ravech (play-by-play), Eduardo Perez and Ben McDonald (analysts) and Dani Wexelman (reporter) 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 Taylor Maples on the radio call.
• Live stats will be available at NCAA.com.

Leading Off

• Oklahoma is making its 39th appearance in an NCAA postseason, and first since 2018. The Sooners are 91-78 all-time in NCAA tournament games, have appeared in 11 College World Series and won national championships in 1951 and 1994.
• Since the start of the Big 12 Championship on May 24, Oklahoma has four or fewer runs in nine of its 11 games and compiled a 3.55 team ERA. The Sooners allowed four or fewer runs in six straight games from the start of the Big 12 Championship through the first two games of the Gainesville Regional. That was the longest streak of the season, and the next closest streak was five games, from Feb. 20-27. OU has now allowed four or fewer runs in six of its last seven contests.
• The Sooners have won nine of their last 11 games and 15 of their last 20, and are 24-10 since April 12. OU concluded its Big 12 regular season slate by winning five straight series, won all four Big 12 Championship contests, and went 3-1 in the Gainesville Regional and 2-1 in the Blacksburg Super Regional. OU has won at least two games for nine straight weekends.
• OU's last home game at L. Dale Mitchell Park was May 15. Since then, the Sooners have posted a 12-4 record while playing four straight weeks away from home.
• Oklahoma is hitting .297 as a team and averaging 7.7 runs, 10.0 hits and 3.4 extra base hits per game (132 doubles, 70 home runs). The pitching staff has compiled a 5.41 ERA, 585 strikeouts to 228 walks and 616 hits in 570.1 innings and has allowed a .275 opponent batting average.
• Texas A&M is hitting .292 as a team. The Aggies average 7.5 runs, 10.1 hits and 3.5 extra base hits per game (117 doubles, 80 home runs). The pitching staff has compiled a 4.68 ERA, 547 strikeouts to 202 walks and 552 hits in 531.0 innings and has allowed a .262 opponent batting average.
• Oklahoma has drawn 156 more free passes this season than its opponents. OU batters have registered 352 walks and been hit by a pitch 91 times this season, totaling 443 free passes. The Sooners have allowed 228 walks and 59 hit batters (287 free passes). Texas A&M has drawn 151 more free bases than their opponents.
• The Sooners have registered at least 40 victories for the 24th time in program history, and first since 2013 (43-21 record). The most wins most prior to that season was in 2010 (50-18 record, College World Series appearance).
• OU's 142 stolen bases are the most in a season since the 1989 team registered 168 stolen bases.
• Oklahoma's 70 home runs this season are the most since OU's 2010 College World Series team hit 105 homers.
• 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 154-102 record since taking over as head coach prior to the 2018 season.

Series History

• The Sooners hold a 33-28 advantage all-time in the series against Texas A&M.
• This will be the first meeting between the two since the Aggies left the Big 12 following the 2012 season.
• The two programs have met just twice in the NCAA postseason. Both games resulted in OU victories in the 1975 NCAA District Tournament hosted in Norman.

Season Turning Second Half

• Oklahoma is 24-10 since April 12, when it carried an 18-12 record into a non-conference midweek game against Texas Tech in Amarillo, Texas. Beginning with that Tuesday night, the offense has blossomed. OU is batting .310 and averaging 9.1 runs and 10.9 hits per game. The Sooners have also registered 51 home runs, 77 doubles and 203 walks over their last 34 contests.
• The Sooners enter the 2022 NCAA Men's College World Series with a 9-2 record since the end of the regular season.
• Oklahoma has won at least two games in each of its last nine weekends of play, dating to the April 14-16 non-conference set against Pacific and Lamar. OU's last series loss was April 8-10 at • Oklahoma State. Included are a road series sweep at Kansas, road series victories at TCU and Texas Tech, as well as the Regional and Super Regional wins at Florida and Virginia Tech.
• The Sooners scored at least 40 runs in three of their final 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). OU scored 28 runs during its non-conference weekend against Pacific and Lamar, winning six straight weekends to end the regular season, and put up 32 runs in four games during the Gainesville Regional.
• Oklahoma, which tied for second place in the Big 12 conference standings, posted an aggregate 21-9 record against Big 12 opponents this season. OU is ranked 19th in the RPI and went 18-12 against the top 50 teams in the RPI rankings, which was the third-most top-50 wins nationally, behind only Tennessee and North Carolina (20 wins each).
• Oklahoma's overall strength of schedule was ranked 14th in the country when the NCAA Baseball Championship bracket was announced on May 30. That was the highest strength of schedule ranking among Big 12 schools, and three spots higher than next highest program (Oklahoma State, 17th).

#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

• Redshirt sophomore first baseman Blake Robertson ranks second nationally in walks (65) and is third nationally in walks per game (1.02). His 22 doubles rank 12th nationally and second in the Big 12. Peyton Graham is second in the Big 12 and ranks 47th nationally by averaging 1.15 runs scored per game, and his 71 total runs scored rank third in the Big 12 and 26th in the nation. Graham's 20 home runs rank 31st nationally and second in the Big 12.
• Since May 13 (18 games), Kendall Pettis has batted .393 (22 for 56) with two doubles, three home runs, 16 RBIs and 20 runs scored. He hit his third and fourth home runs of the season (has six career) in the Gainesville Regional before hitting his fifth of the year in Blacksburg. He has drawn 10 walks, been hit by a pitch four times, stolen six bases and registered a .507 on-base percentage. Pettis was named Most Valuable Player of the NCAA Gainesville Regional.
• Jimmy Crooks has thrown out 19 of 63 potential base stealers this season, and threw out 11 of 34 runners in Big 12 conference play. Since April 23, Crooks has thrown out 12 of 21 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. Crooks has reached base in 21 consecutive games.
• Robertson has reached base in 61 of his 64 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), but drove in two runs. He did not reach base vs. Texas Tech in the Big 12 tournament, but was credited with a sacrifice bunt. 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 and the 14 since May 16). He reached base in 35 consecutive games from March 15 through May 15.
• Jake Bennett has lasted at least 6.0 innings in 11 of his 17 starts and allowed three or fewer runs 11 times.
• Wallace Clark has reached base in 28 of his last 31 games, and in 34 of the 43 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 and is hitting .291 for the season.
• 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 456 runs over 54 games (8.4 per game). OU has scored at least seven runs in 37 of those 54 games, and has posted a 37-17 record in that span (29-8 this season when scoring at least seven runs).

Base Snatchers

• The Sooners have registered 142 stolen bases in 181 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 142 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 fourth nationally in stolen bases (142) and steals per game (2.22). Both figures rank second in the Big 12, only to West Virginia's 156 steals and average of 2.84 steals per game.
• Peyton Graham leads OU with 32 stolen bases, while Tanner Tredaway has 23 steals, Kendall Pettis has 22, Blake Robertson has 12 steals, John Spikerman has 12 steals (in 30 games) and catcher Jimmy Crooks has 10 steals. A total of 14 players have recorded at least one stolen base this season.
• Graham's 32 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 six Sooners have recorded double digit steals in the same season since 1989. The last time three players notched at least 20 stolen bases was 1994. The 1989 group with double-digit steals included: Kevin Castleberry (43 steals), Paul Oster (25 steals), John Douglas (22 steals), Mark Colc (19 steals), Darron Cox (19 steals) and Chris Ebright (14 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.

2023 OU Baseball Tickets

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