Top-Seed Sooners Open Big 12 Championship Wednesday

Oklahoma

Big 12 Championship

May 22-25 / Arlington, Texas / Globe Life Field

FIRST PITCH

• Top-seeded and No. 8 nationally OU (34-18, 23-7) opens the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship Wednesday at Globe Life Field in Arlington vs. nine-seed TCU (32-19, 14-16).

• First pitch of OU's opening round matchup is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. CT Wednesday as the No. 1 seed Sooners received a first-round bye and awaited the lowest-seeded winner from two of Tuesday's matchups.

• The game can be seen via Big 12 NOW on ESPN+ with Keith Moreland and Mike Rooney on the call.

• All games can heard locally in Oklahoma on SportsTalk 1400 AM/99.3 FM or nationwide on The Varsity app with OU play-by-play voice Toby Rowland calling the action with analysts Ross Hubbard and Carly Murray.

• The Sooners enter the postseason with a 34-18 record and 23-7 mark in conference play, winning their first Big 12 regular season title in program history by three games.

• OU is looking for its second Big 12 tournament title in the past three years and fourth overall, previously winning the conference tourney in 1997, 2013 and 2022.

LEADING OFF

• The Sooners have put together an historic season, highlighted by a top-10 win over then-No. 9, and current No. 1, Tennessee, four ranked victories, six Big 12 sweeps for the first time and the first Big 12 regular season crown in program history.

• The Sooners hold the No. 10 SOS entering conference tournament week and No. 15 RPI, going 11-6 in Quad 1 games and a combined 20-12 in matchups vs. Q1 and Q2. OU's non-conference SOS ranks sixth in the country.

• OU's six conference sweeps are the most in the program's history in the Big 12 era and the most across conference play since 1994 (6, Big 8).

• OU won 23 games in Big 12 play, the most for the program in the Big 12 era and tying the most in program history with the 1994 and '95 teams. The Sooners were one win shy of tying the Big 12's all-time record for league wins in a season (Texas, 2010)

• The Sooners won 14 of their last 16 conference games, including sweeps in four of the last six weekend series.
• Oklahoma had a wire-to-wire lead over the Big 12 standings, sitting in first or a tie for first place after every weekend of Big 12 play.

• Oklahoma is in its seventh season under the direction of head coach Skip Johnson. Johnson, who spent the 2017 season on staff as an assistant coach, has led the Sooners to a 223-150 record, three NCAA Tournament appearances, the 2024 Big 12 regular season title, 2022 Big 12 tournament championship and the 2022 College World Series finals since taking over as head coach prior to the 2018 season.

Lead, BSB BIG 12 CHAMPS

THE NUMBERS

• The Sooners rank first in the Big 12 and 18th nationally with a .313 team batting average.

• OU is averaging a league-best 8.5 runs/game, ranking 24th in the country.

• Five Sooners with at least 30 GP hold batting averages over .300, paced by John Spikerman's .414 clip and Easton Carmichael's .363 average.

• In conference play, OU led the Big 12 in nine major categories: BA (.327), SLG (.545), OB% (.419), runs scored (293), hits (347), RBIs (263), doubles (73), triples (13) and total bases (578). The team ranks in the top five in numerous other categories including second in stolen bases (48) and walks (148) and fourth in home runs (44).

• Carmichael leads the team with 78 hits and 59 RBIs, both good for second in the Big 12, while graduate transfer Michael Snyder leads the team with 22 doubles (1st in B12 & 12th nationally) while senior Bryce Madron has a team-best 11 home runs and 39 walks, and also leads the team and Big 12 with 65 runs scored (34th in nation).

• 11 Sooners have homered for a total of 63 team blasts, led by Madron's 11, while nine other Sooners have three or more.

• Nine Sooners have brought in at least 20 runs, with six plating 30-plus.

• On the mound, the Oklahoma pitching staff has a 5.34 team ERA with 479 strikeouts to 233 walks.

• Junior LHP transfer Braden Davis has been exceptional in his Friday night role with 14 starts, leading OU with 98 strikeouts in 76.2 innings pitched. The OU ace has won six straight starts and is 7-1 in Big 12 play (8-3 overall).

• Sophomore righty Kyson Witherspoon (9 GS) paces the starting pitchers with a 4.24 ERA in 70.0 IP to go with 75 strikeouts, while transfer Brendan Girton has 43 K's in 33.2 innings pitched, seeing time as a starter and reliever.

• The pitching staff has recorded double-digit strikeouts in 24 of OU's 52 games with a season-high 15 four times (vs. Tennessee [2/17], vs. Wright State [2/24], vs. West Virginia [3/22], at BYU [4/18]).

• The Sooner arms have thrown four shutouts in 52 games played in 2024, the most since five in 2019. The four shutouts rank third in the Big 12 and 22nd nationally.

• The Sooners have had 18 pitchers make appearances so far in 2024, with 10 surpassing the 20 K mark.

• Head coach and pitching coach Skip Johnson and the Sooners have 22 pitchers on the roster in 2024.

RANKINGS CHATTER

• The Sooners made their season debut in the polls the week of March 18, earning spots in all four major polls. After falling out briefly, OU made its return to the ranks April 22 and has been ranked each of the past five weeks.

• This week's rankings have the Sooners the highest they have been this season at: No. 8 (D1Baseball), No. 11 (USA TODAY Coaches), No. 12 (NCBWA) and No. 15 (Baseball America).

• The Sooners are 4-1 in ranked contests this season, all four wins being against top-15 opponents.

• Oklahoma holds the No. 10 strength of schedule in the nation, having been as high as No. 1 for a number of weeks.

• OU ranks 15th in the latest NCAA RPI, having been as high as third this season.

• According to D1 Baseball and Baseball America, the Sooners are projected to be a top-eight national seed come next week's Selection Monday. OU has not been a national seed since 2009 (No. 7) and not hosted an NCAA regional in Norman since 2010.

RECORD WATCH & MORE NUGGETS

• Kendall Pettis currently sits 10th on the the program top-10 list with 56 career stolen bases. Coincidentally, Pettis has recently passed OU associate head coach Reggie Willits' career mark of 54 and OU assistant coach Todd Butler's 53 in his two seasons at OU from 1987-88 (including a program record 46 in '87).

• Senior Bryce Madron has drawn 100 career walks as a Sooner in just two seasons in Norman. His 100 BB currently ranks inside the top 20 in program history and is just five shy of the top 10. Madron's 61 walks drawn in 2023 ranked fourth in program single-season history.

• Redshirt senior LHP Carter Campbell is currently third in program history with 89 career appearances. Fellow senior Carson Atwood has 83 career appearances, good for T5th in school annals.

• Junior Jackson Nicklaus has hit 25 career home runs in his three years as a Sooner to rank 17th in program history. Nicklaus is just six shy of cracking the program top-10 list.

• 6-4, 226-pound redshirt senior Michael Snyder has stolen 13 bases on 14 attempts in 2024 after not registering a stolen base in four seasons at Washington, a testament to OU and associate head coach Reggie Willits' 'CHAOUS' brand of baseball, creating havoc on the base paths.

• Seven Sooners hold double digit multi-hit games on the season, led by sophomore Easton Carmichael's 26 games with multiple knocks. Michael Snyder and Anthony Mackenzie are close behind with 20 and 19, respectively. 13 Sooners have multi-RBI performances, paced by Snyder's 16. Bryce Madron holds the single-game season high with 7 RBI vs. BYU (4/20), the most by a Sooner since 2010.

LAST TIME OUT

• OU took the series at Cincinnati, sweeping a Thursday doubleheader by scores of 14-6 and 12-8 before narrowly dropping the finale, 10-6, late in the game.

• Sooner sophomore reserve Rocco Garza-Gongora stepped up for OU, hitting .714 (5-for-7) in his two starts, batting in five runs with two extra-base hits.

• The Big 12 Player of the Week two weeks ago, John Spikerman, continued his tear at the plate, going 5-for-10 (.500) in two games with a triple and pair of RBIs.

• As a team, OU hit .336 on the series with 14 XBH. The OU pitching staff struck out a combined 25 on the weekend to 11 walks and 22 earned runs.

JOHNSON NAMED COACH OF THE YEAR, 12 SOONERS COLLECT BIG 12 HONORS

• Oklahoma Baseball placed three players on the 2024 All-Big 12 First Team and two on the second team, head coach Skip Johnson was named the Big 12 Coach of the Year and a total of 12 Sooners earned recognition, the conference office announced the honors Monday. Selections were made by the league's head coaches, who were not permitted to vote for their own players.

• Johnson claimed the program's first Big 12 baseball coach of the year honor. Senior infielder Michael Snyder, sophomore designated hitter Easton Carmichael and sophomore pitcher Braden Davis earned All-Big 12 First Team honors, while senior outfielder Bryce Madron and sophomore pitcher Kyson Witherspoon were named to the second team. Shortstop Jaxon Willits was selected to the All-Freshman Team and six Sooners earned honorable mention recognition (Carter Campbell, Anthony Mackenzie, Scott Mudler, Jackson Nicklaus, John Spikerman and Jaxon Willits).

LED BY THE VETS

• Veteran leadership highlights the 2024 Oklahoma squad, paced by redshirt seniors Kendall Pettis and Michael Snyder, seniors Anthony Mackenzie and Bryce Madron, and juniors Jackson Nicklaus and John Spikerman.

• The six combine for 1,024 career games played and 962 starts. Production at the plate includes a combined 111 home runs, 194 doubles and 637 RBIs.

RECAPPING THE SEASON

• After dropping the season opener to Oregon, the Sooners bounced back in a big way with a pair of wins vs. No. 9 Tennessee and Nebraska in dramatic fashion at the season-opening Shriners Children's College Classic at Globe Life Field in Arlington.

• Opening the home slate vs. Wright State, the Sooners came sprinting out of the gates on offense, putting up a combined 46 runs on the weekend, highlighted by a 20-0 home-opening day win on Friday.

• The Sooners opened Big 12 play in dominant fashion, sweeping a UCF team that came to Norman at 9-1 and fresh off a win at No. 4 Florida.

• Oklahoma stayed unbeaten in conference play with an impressive three-game sweep of No. 12 TCU in Fort Worth, March 15-17. It marked OU's first sweep of TCU at Lupton Stadium and first sweep over the Horned Frogs since 2013.

• OU dropped home series' to West Virginia and Lamar and was narrowly edged by OSU in Stillwater but rebounded with a seven-game conference win streak, including back-to-back Big 12 sweeps of Kansas State in Norman and BYU in Provo.

• After a series loss to Texas in which the rubber match was called short in the seventh inning with OU trailing by two, the Sooners responded with a three-game sweep at Tech for the first time since 2006.

• In the final home regular season series, OU won yet again in sweep fashion, capping the three-game sweep of Baylor by clinching the program's first Big 12 regular season crown. In the final regular season series, OU won the series at Cincinnati to push its Big 12 win total to 23, a program record and one shy of the all-time Big 12 mark.

• The Sooners went 5-4 in midweek contests in 2024, highlighted by a season sweep of Wichita State.

• Fans have tuned in and showed out for the trending Sooners, with attendance records being set at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman. On home-opening weekend, the fan base set records for: largest opening day attendance, largest student attendance and largest opening series attendance.

• In 2024, OU set the top three single-game attendance marks in program history, recently breaking the all-time mark with 4,812 in attendance for OU's Friday night win over Texas on April 26. It broke a 29-year-old attendance record of 4,544 vs. Texas in 1995

• In addition, the OU-Texas series in Norman set a single-series program attendance record with 12,335 fans attending the three-game set, shattering the previous record of 7,269 vs. Texas in 2014.

• The Sooners broke their single season attendance record with 60,962 fans attending games at LDM this season.

BIG LEAGUE BALLPARKS

• This is the sixth straight season in which Oklahoma will play at least one game in a Major League Ballpark. OU went 2-1 in opening weekend's Shriners Children's College Showdown, and return for the Big 12 Championship at the Texas Rangers' ballpark. The Sooners played four games at Globe Life Field in 2023 after a program-high 16 games in big league ballparks in 2022 — the State Farm College Baseball Showdown at Globe Life Field (Feb. 18-20), a three-game set vs. Northwestern State at Globe Life Field (Feb. 25-27), the Shriners Children's College Classic at the Houston Astros' Minute Maid Park (March 4-6), a series against Texas at Globe Life Field (April 1-3) and the Big 12 Championship at Globe Life Field. The Sooners played two games at Globe Life Field in 2021, three at Minute Maid Park in 2020 (Shriners College Classic) and one contest against Minnesota at Target Field in Minneapolis (2019).

• Since 2019, OU is a combined 16-13 in games played at MLB ballparks (13-9 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, 2-4 at Minute Maid Park in Houston and 1-0 at Target Field in Minneapolis).

THE SKIPPER SURPASSES 200 WINS AT OU

• OU head coach Skip Johnson collected his 200th career victory at Oklahoma on March 15 with OU's 7-3 win at No. 12 TCU.

• Oklahoma is in its seventh season under the direction Johnson. Johnson, who spent the 2017 season on staff as an assistant coach, has led the Sooners to a 223-150 record, three NCAA Tournament appearances, the 2024 Big 12 regular season title, 2022 Big 12 tournament championship and the 2022 College World Series finals since taking over as head coach prior to the 2018 season.

• Johnson holds 637 career wins as a head coach, earning 414 at Navarro (TX) College before making the jump to Division I baseball where he's won 223 at OU.

L. DALE MITCHELL PARK EXPANSION PROJECT

• The Oklahoma baseball facility enhancement project will transform the look of the ballpark from both the interior bowl and the exterior of the stadium. New locker rooms, training areas, coaches offices and team meeting areas combined with chairback seating, terraced berms and additional awnings and concourses will provide a first-class facility for fans and student-athletes. In addition, a new, state-of-the-art performance and player development center will be added. A new entry to the team areas will include a Champions Lobby, displaying the success and tradition of the Oklahoma baseball program.

• More than 35,000 in square-foot-space of new areas benefiting student-athlete performance and recovery including a robust medical services area, weight room and sports science to centralize student-athlete training at the baseball field.

• For more information and to donate to the L. Dale Mitchell project, visit The Sooner Club.

For updates and more information on Oklahoma baseball, follow the Sooners on Twitter and Instagram (@OU_Baseball) and like Oklahoma Baseball on Facebook.