Baseball Begins Road Trip at UTA Wednesday

First Pitch

• Oklahoma (4-4) will play its first true road game of the 2023 season Wednesday when it travels to face UT Arlington (2-6) at Clay Gould Ballpark in Arlington, Texas. Game time is set for 6:30 p.m.
• The Sooners last played on Sunday, concluding a stretch of eight games in 10 days to begin the season. The Mavericks also played eight games during the season's first 10 days with a pair of midweek contests last week.
• Oklahoma will continue its road trip to Frisco, Texas, for the Frisco College Classic this weekend. The Sooners will face California at 2 p.m. Friday, Mississippi State at 1 p.m. Saturday and Ohio State at 3 p.m. Sunday. All three games will be televised via D1Baseball.com. OU fans can receive a discount on the weekend subscription by using code OUFC.
• Oklahoma is celebrating its 125th anniversary season in 2023. The program was established in 1898, and OU has competed in 118 seasons since (including 2023).

Watch/Listen/Follow

• A live video stream of Wednesday's game will be available on WAC International via UT Arlington broadcast. The game will also be broadcast locally on Sportstalk 99.3 FM/1400 AM KREF with Taylor Maples on the call.
• Live stats will be available at OUStats.com.

Leading Off

• Oklahoma is in its sixth 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 161-108 record, two NCAA Tournament appearances, the 2022 Big 12 tournament championship and the 2022 College World Series finals since taking over as head coach prior to the 2018 season.
• Oklahoma leads the all-time series against UT Arlington, 26-11. The teams last played in 2021. That season, OU won by scores of 7-1 at Globe Life Field (Feb . 24) and 15-5 in Norman (March 9). The Sooners have won five straight in the series, dating back to the 2018 season. The Mavs last defeated OU in 2014, by a score of 6-5 in Norman.
• The Sooners last visited Clay Gould Ballpark on March 10, 2020. OU won that game 3-0. It was the last contest played during the 2020 campaign. The remainder of the season was canceled on March 13 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• UT Arlington is in its first season under head coach Clay Van Hook. Van Hook spent the last five years (2018-22) as assistant coach at Oklahoma, where he most recently served as hitting, infield and third base coach, while assisting with the offensive game plan. He was named head coach at UTA on July 1, 2022.
• Through eight games, junior transfer first baseman Anthony Mackenzie leads the Sooners with a .548 batting average (17 of 31) and nine stolen bases (9 of 10). Last season, it took 14 games for an OU player to reach nine stolen bases. Junior college transfer shortstop Dakota Harris paces OU with 11 RBIs and three doubles. Harris is also hitting .313 (10 for 32). Freshman catcher Easton Carmichael is batting .321 (9 for 28) with two triples and two steals. Junior transfer right fielder Bryce Madron has registered 15 walks in the season's first eight games.
• The Sooners returned 12 letterwinners from the 2022 squad and brought in 25 newcomers for the 2023 season. Ten of the newcomers are freshmen, eight of the 25 newcomers are position players and 17 are pitchers.
• Eighteen of the newcomers have already seen game action this season (seven position players and 11 pitchers).
• Entering the 2023 season, the Sooners had to replace significant production from the 2022 squad that saw 11 players drafted (seven in the first 10 rounds). OU lost 69% of its RBI production, 67% of its hits and 65% of runs scored on offense, and 79% of its innings pitched and 83% of pitching strikeouts from last year.