Sooners Open NCAA Gainesville Regional Friday

Oklahoma

Florida

Liberty

Central Michigan

NCAA Gainesville Regional / Friday-Monday, June 3-6 / Gainesville, Fla. / Condron Family Ballpark

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Matchups
Game Time	OU Projected Starter	LU Projected Starter
Friday, noon CT	LHP Jake Bennett	RHP Dylan Cumming

First Pitch

• No. 2 seed Oklahoma (37-20, 15-9 Big 12) opens the NCAA Gainesville Regional against No. 3 seed Liberty (37-21, 19-11 ASUN) at noon CT Friday at Condron Family Ballpark in Gainesville, Fla.
• Oklahoma is making its 39th NCAA postseason appearance, and second under head coach Skip Johnson. The Sooners reached the postseason in 2018, Johnson's first year at the helm of the program.
• The winner of Friday's opener between OU and Liberty will play the winner of No. 1 seed Florida and No. 4 seed Central Michigan at 6 p.m. CT Saturday. The respective losing teams will play at noon CT Saturday.
• Oklahoma earned the Big 12 Conference automatic bid to the 2022 NCAA Baseball Championship by winning the Big 12 Championship last weekend at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. It was OU's third Big 12 tournament title (also won in 1997 and 2013). Liberty received an at-large bid out of the Atlantic Sun Conference.

Watch/Listen/Follow

• The first round of Gainesville Regional games will be televised via ESPN+, with Steve Lenox and David Dellucci calling the action. TV networks for remaining regional games will be determined later.
• 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 on the radio call.
• Live stats will be available at OUStats.com and NCAA.com.

Leading Off

• Oklahoma is making its 39th appearance in an NCAA Regional, and first since 2018. The Sooners are 86-76 all-time in NCAA tournament games, have appeared in 10 College World Series and won national championships in 1951 and 1994.
• The Sooners have won 10 of their last 13 games entering the postseason and are 19-8 since April 12. OU closed its Big 12 regular season slate by winning five straight series and 11 of its last 15 contests.
• Oklahoma is hitting .296 as a team and averaging 7.6 runs, 9.9 hits and 3.3 extra base hits per game (119 doubles, 54 home runs). The pitching staff has compiled a 5.57 ERA, 514 strikeouts to 210 walks and 551 hits in 507.1 innings and has allowed a .277 opponent batting average.
• Liberty is hitting .272 as a team. The Flames average 7.2 runs, 9.3 hits and 3.3 extra base hits per game (109 doubles, 75 home runs). The pitching staff has compiled a 4.14 ERA, 599 strikeouts to 214 walks and 511 hits in 515.1 innings and has allowed a .254 opponent batting average.
• Oklahoma has drawn 139 more free passes this season than its opponents. OU batters have drawn 327 walks and been hit by a pitch 78 times this season, totaling 405 free passes. The Sooners allowed 210 walks and 56 hit batters (266 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 149-100 record since taking over as head coach prior to the 2018 season.

Series History

• This will be the first meeting between Oklahoma and Liberty in baseball. A meeting between Oklahoma and Florida would also be the first in baseball.
• Oklahoma leads the all-time series against Central Michigan 9-3. The teams last met during the 1992 season, a three-game OU sweep in Norman.
• The Sooners and Chippewas met five times in Edinburg, Texas, in 1984 and '86. CMU won three of those five meetings. OU won the first five contests during the 1975 and '76 seasons in Norman.

#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 was named a third-team All-American by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, and is a finalist for the Brooks Wallace Award and a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award. Additionally, he was a first-team All-Big 12 selection and named Most Outstanding Player of the 2022 Big 12 Championship.
• Graham's tools including an impressive combination of power and speed. His 16 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]). His 30 stolen bases are the most since2003 and he is just the 14th player in school history to register at least 30 steals in a season.
• The Waxahachie, Texas, product has been particularly effective at the plate in the second half of the season. In 28 games since April 10, Graham has batted .371 (43 of 116) with 36 RBIs and 39 runs scored. He has posted a .724 slugging percentage and a .469 OBP while recording 17 of his 22 walks and nine of his 16 home runs. He is 20 of 21 in stolen base attempts and has committed only three errors over the last 28 contests.
• Redshirt sophomore first baseman Blake Robertson leads the nation in walks (62) and is second nationally in walks per game (1.09). He ranks among the national and Big 12 leaders with his .480 OBP (43rd nationally; second in Big 12) and 22 doubles (23rd nationally; second in Big 12). Peyton Graham leads the Big 12 and ranks 36th nationally by averaging 1.2 runs scored per game, and his 65 total runs scored rank third in the Big 12 and 44th in the nation.
• Jimmy Crooks has thrown out 16 of 56 potential base stealers this season, and threw out 11 of 34 runners in Big 12 conference play. Since April 23, Crooks has thrown out nine of 26 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 54 of his 57 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 seven 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 10 of his 15 starts and allowed three or fewer runs 10 times.
• Wallace Clark has reached base in 23 of his last 24 games, and in 29 of the 36 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 .315 for the season.

Base Snatchers

• The Sooners have registered 135 stolen bases in 169 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 135 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 fifth nationally in stolen bases (135) and steals per game (2.37). 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 30 stolen bases, while Tanner Tredaway has 23 steals, Kendall Pettis has 21, Blake Robertson has 12 steals and catcher Jimmy Crooks has 10 steals. Additionally, John Spikerman has notched nine stolen bases in his 23 games. A total of 14 players have recorded at least one stolen base this season.
• Graham's 30 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.

Strong Second Half

• Oklahoma is 19-8 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 .311 and averaging 9.4 runs and 10.9 hits per game. The Sooners have also registered 35 home runs, 64 doubles and 178 walks over their last 27 contests.
• 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 also scored 28 runs during its non-conference weekend against Pacific and Lamar, winning six straight weekends to end the regular season.
• 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).
• OOklahoma's overall strength of schedule is ranked 14th in the country. That is the highest strength of schedule ranking, and three spots higher than next highest conference program (Oklahoma State, 17th).