University of Oklahoma Athletics

OU Baseball Returns To Big 12 Action With A Weekend Series At Texas Tech :: Sooners looking to get back in conference race.

OU Baseball Returns To Big 12 Action With A Weekend Series At Texas Tech :: Sooners looking to get back in conference race. OU Baseball Returns To Big 12 Action With A Weekend Series At Texas Tech

Sooners looking to get back in conference race.




Sophomore Denver Kitch and the Oklahoma Sooners take on Texas Tech this weekend in Lubbock.

April 25, 2002

Dates: April 26-28

First Pitches: 7 p.m on Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday

Ballpark: Dan Law Field (5,050)

Location: Lubbock, Texas

Radio: The entire OU-Texas Tech series can be heard on KREF-1400 AM, as well as through OU's official athletic website, soonersports.com. James Hale and Chad Cochell will call the action.

Rankings: Oklahoma is not ranked, but is receiving votes in all three major polls. Texas Tech is not ranked.

Scouting Texas Tech
Texas Tech comes into this weekend series with a record of 31-16, but is just 10-11 in Big 12 Conference play. The Red Raiders swept Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last weekend in Lubbock and are returning to conference play for the first time since beating Kansas in two of three games on April 12-14. Texas Tech has beaten TCU an incredible six times this season and has won two of three games from Oklahoma State, Missouri and Kansas. Tech will round out its Big 12 season on May 15-17 when Baylor visits Lubbock. Tech started its season on January 25 and played so many early games that it has played very few mid-week games during the months of March and April. In addition, the Red Raiders will not play again after this weekend until May 10.

The Red Raiders are a poweful offensive club, boasting six players from the everyday lineup who are batting .300-or-better for the season. Jon Slack (.376, 32 RBI) and Willie Durazo (.375, 42 RBI) lead with the way, each having hit seven home runs. Kevin Jordan is hitting .351 and Gera Alvarez bats .328 with nine home runs and 41 runs batted in. Tech's top power hitter is Nick Blankenship, who has belted 14 home runs and driven in 56 teammates, both tops in the Big 12. As a team, the Raiders have a .314 batting average -- third in the Big 12 -- have stolen 62 bases and boast a fielding percentage of .968, also third in the conference. Tech has turned 42 double plays, just one shy of the league lead held by Texas.

Texas Tech's pitching rotation this weekend will be Steve Gooch on Friday night, Nathan Fouts on Saturday and Dusty Buck on Sunday. Gooch is a sophomore right-hander from Waco, who is 5-2 with a 4.17 ERA on the season. Fouts, another righty, is 6-5 with 57 strikeouts has compiled an earned run average of 4.40 this year, while Buck is 5-1 with a 4.53 ERA. Tech's ace is Chris Phillips, who is 5-3 and has fanned a team-high 67 batters in 81 inning pitched. Steve Rowe serves as the closer for the Raiders, picking up six saves and striking out 54 in just 45 innings.

Arizona State Tops Sooners In Oklahoma City
The Oklahoma baseball team fell to Arizona State by a score of 7-5 in front of 2,598 fans Wednesday evening at the SBC Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City. The Sooners held two separate three-run leads in the game, but ASU rallied to tie the game at five and then went ahead for good with two runs in the eighth frame. Curtis White (0-2) took the loss for Oklahoma after allowing those two tallies, while Mark Sopko (2-1) earned the win for ASU.

Brandon Jones and Denver Kitch each homered for Oklahoma, which won two of three contests from Arizona State in March. ASU is now 3-1 against the Sooners all-time at SBC Bricktown Ballpark and the Sooners fell to 0-2 on the season in the beautiful Oklahoma City ballpark

Oklahoma Sweeps In-State Rival Oral Roberts
The Oklahoma baseball team completed a three-game series sweep of Oral Roberts with a 7-5 victory Sunday at L. Dale Mitchell Park. David Purcey (3-2), who made his first collegiate start on April 16 versus TCU, earned his second win of the week by going seven innings, striking out a career-high eight and surrendering just three unearned runs. The Sooners took a 7-1 lead on a three-run home run by junior designated hitter Luke Alexander in the sixth inning, and held off a late ORU rally which brought the Golden Eagles to within two.

Down a run entering the ninth inning, the never-say-die Sooners manufactured two runs and earned a thrilling 6-5 win over Oral Roberts on Saturday night. After a rain delay of nearly an hour, the Golden Eagles scored four runs in the first inning. But with dominating pitching performances by Buddy Blair and Evan Greusel, and the clutch bats of Matt Bose and Charlie Frasier, OU rallied to tie the game and eventually win on a bases-loaded wild pitch by ORU reliever Trey Stephens. All six of Oklahoma's runs in the game came with two outs and Greusel moved to 4-2 on the season, after pitching 2.1 innings of shutout ball. Blair came on in relief of OU starter Jarod McAuliff, and made arguably his best performance of the season, going 5.2 innings, allowing just one unearned run on four hits and striking out five.

The Sooners picked up an important 6-2 win over Oral Roberts Friday night at ORU's J.L. Johnson Stadium. Mark Roberts (5-2) earned the win for the Sooners and threw 123 pitches in six innings, allowed two runs - one earned - on five hits and struck out five. Curtis White picked up his first save as a Sooner by going 2.1 perfect innings and striking out two. ORU starter Michael Rogers (7-2) allowed six runs on seven hits and was handed just his second regular season loss since the 1999 season.

Purcey Named Phillips 66 Big 12 Player of the Week
Oklahoma freshman David Purcey was named Phillips 66 Big 12 Pitcher of the Week for his play during the week of April 15-21, the league office announced on Monday. Purcey, a left-hander from Dallas who coincidentally turned 20 years old on Monday, made the first two starts of his collegiate career last week and went 2-0 with an 0.69 ERA and 13 strikeouts.

Against TCU on Tuesday, April 16, Purcey pitched six innings and struck out five Horned Frogs while allowing just one run on five hits. He followed that performance by shutting down Oral Roberts on Sunday, April 21, and notching his second win in as many games. Purcey pitched seven frames against the Golden Eagles, struck out a career-high eight batters and allowed just three unearned runs.

Purcey currently boasts a team-high six saves on the season, which is the most ever for an OU freshman and sixth-most for all Oklahoma pitchers in a season. The 6-foot-5, 235-pounder from Dallas' Trinity Christian Academy was selected in the 20th round of the 2001 Major League Baseball draft by the Seattle Mariners, however chose to attend Oklahoma.

Roberts Is OU's Ace
Mark Roberts has firmly entrenched himself in the role of ace in Oklahoma's pitching staff. The sophomore from Owasso, Okla., has a 5-2 record and a 4.32 ERA, good for 20th in the Big 12 Conference. Roberts' five wins are the most on the team, his 50 strikeouts are second on the club (just one behind freshman phenom David Purcey) and he has pitched a team-high 58.1 innings. Roberts, who started the season in the bullpen and notched a save, won three games as a freshman a year ago. He will look to double that total when he starts on Friday night against Texas Tech.

Jones Was Busy Last Weekend
Brandon Jones has started in center field for the past six games and looks to be earning more playing time down the stretch for the Sooners. Jones is batting .316 (12-for-38) with a triple, three home runs and eight RBI on the season. He is also a talented wide receiver and punt returner for Oklahoma's nationally-ranked football team.

Bob Stoops' squad held its annual Red-White scrimmage last Saturday and Jones came away with seven catches and two touchdown grabs. The night before in Tulsa, Jones hit a towering home run against Oral Roberts, his second of the season.

Series Notes
Texas Tech leads the all-time series with Oklahoma by a margin of 16-12-1... The first meeting between the schools came during the 1982 season, a 3-2 Oklahoma win in Norman ... The most recent meeting between OU and Texas Tech came at the Big 12 Tournament in Oklahoma City, when OU eliminated the Red Raiders 4-3 behind a complete game masterpiece by Mark Roberts ... Two days earlier, Texas Tech pounded OU 17-5 in the opening round of the Big 12 Tournament ... The teams both went 1-1-1 against each other during the 2001 regular season ... TTU won the opening game of the series 9-3 and OU rebounded to win game two 6-5 ... Charlie Frasier and Matt Fisher each registered two hits in the second game of the series, while Roberts notched the win ... In game three, the teams tied 7-7 after a 44-minute rain delay in the 10th inning forced the Red Raiders to head for the airport and their flight home ... OU hit two home runs with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to even the game at seven ... Texas Tech's Nick Blankenship, Peter Jones, J.D. Seger and Chris Phillips were all teammates of current Sooner Charlie Frasier at Santa Rosa JC in California ... TTU cacher Madison Edwards was a high school teammate of OU's Matt Bose at Midland (Texas) High ... Texas Tech P J.J. Newman attended the same junior college, Seward County, as OU P Curtis White.