Oklahoma baseball knows what it looks like, SEC has Sooners prepared

As the national seeds were unveiled on Monday morning, Oklahoma baseball fans were unsurprisingly quite familiar with the top eight seeds in this year’s NCAA Tournament. The Southeastern Conference is represented quite well. 

Six of the top eight national seeds are from the SEC. Oklahoma played four (Vanderbilt, Texas, Georgia and Oregon State) of those eight and will make it a fifth if they see the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill.

In what was a talking point week in and week out throughout conference play, if nothing else, Oklahoma heads to Boshamer Stadium this weekend knowing exactly what to expect. They’ve lived it for the last 30 games. 

“Yeah, absolutely. It shows how hard this conference is. That shows you what it’s all about. You look at the top eight seeds. Nearly all of them are from the SEC. Pretty incredible,” said Oklahoma head coach Skip Johnson.

The Southeastern Conference broke its own record, set last season, with 13 teams selected for postseason play. Eight of the 13 teams are hosting regionals this weekend.  

The Sooners collected 12 wins against this year’s tournament field, winning half of its 10 conference series, winning two of three against top overall seed Vanderbilt and regional host Ole Miss. 

Building off success in Hoover 

Oklahoma heads on the road this weekend because of what they didn’t do to close the regular season. Being swept in Lexington was a gut-punch to the Sooners hosting opportunity. Losing two of three to Texas in the final weekend of the regular season sent the Sooners heading into the postseason losing six of their last seven. 

After opening with a pair of wins over Kentucky and Georgia and despite a sloppy performance in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament, Oklahoma finds itself optimistic with the tough task that lies ahead. 

“I’m excited moving forward because we are 0-0 again. We finished our season. We started in the conference tournament and I think our conference tournament prepares us for Omaha,” said Johnson. “It’s almost identical to the things that happen in Omaha.” 

Which means they have to play catch better

Pretty simple, isn’t it? 

Perhaps easier said than done but for Oklahoma to make noise in Chapel Hill, the Sooners defense and bats are going to have to wake up. Twice over the last week of the season, Oklahoma committed more errors than hits. 

If Oklahoma is to lean on its strength(s) on the mound, that means Johnson’s club is going to have to stop making errors and find ways to put hits together. Manufacturing runs come at a premium when the opportunity presents itself in postseason play.

“I thought we played really well the first two days. And we didn’t play defense the third day. It’s kind of been our nemesis (this year). We didn’t play defense,” said Johnson. “I thought we had some quality at-bats. We scored runs in several different ways with a home run, stealing (bases), hit and run and bunting.” 

Welcome back Dayton Tockey 

On Monday, Johnson said Dayton Tockey’s health is progressing in a direction that could find the junior first baseman back in the field this weekend. 

“I hope he will be able to play defense this week. He got a little bit better everyday that we were in Hoover,” said Johnson. “Melissa (Hampton) our trainer did a great job getting him back. I mean four weeks ago this guy had broke his ankle. The resources that we have for our trainers to get him going. He’s spent a lot of time on the water treadmill and all kinds of stuff that I would probably die if I was on it.”  

If nothing else, Tockey’s mere presence in the line up is a morale boost. 

“He’s a big stick in the lineup. We need it. When he’s up, we have a lot of confidence he’s going to drive guys in and hit the ball really hard. Find a gap somehow. With him healthy again in the field I’m really happy for him,” said Sooners starting pitcher Kyson Witherspoon.