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OU baseball at a crossroads following Lamar setback

Eddie On3by:Eddie Radosevich•03/29/24
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Photo by C. Morgan Engel/Getty Images

It’s bad right now for OU baseball. Really bad. Lamar will leave Norman with a series victory, making it back-to-back losing weekends for Oklahoma baseball who has now dropped five of its last seven games. The latest setback a 13-8 decision Friday night that was lopsided in many ways. 

Pitching has been atrocious. Offense hasn’t been dreadful but not good enough to save an Oklahoma pitching staff that can’t find the plate. What’s happened during this slide after breaking into the Top 25 just a few weeks ago? Is it truly a crossroads of the season; whilst climbing back into first place in the Big 12 Conference. What a strange sentence.

“I don’t know if it’s a crossroads as much as it’s getting back to the fundamentals of baseball. Playing good baseball.” head coach Skip Johnson said. “That’s the biggest thing that we have to do is getting back to fundamental baseball. 

“There’s no doubt. You’re going to have peaks and valleys in a season, and we’re probably in a little bit of a valley. And you’ve got to climb out of it and keep going at it.” 

ONE-SIDED NIGHT IN NORMAN

Four of the first seven hitters in the game went yard Friday. Lamar’s River Orsak and Zack Skinner opened the scoring with back-to-back jacks in the first. Jason Walk and Bryce Madron opened the home half with back-to-back solo shots, tying the game 2-2. Five batters later, Jackson Nicklaus unloaded a two-run home run and Oklahoma led 4-2. 

You expected a lot of offense with the flags blowing off the flag pole in centerfield. And there were. There just wasn’t a whole lot to celebrate in the Sooners third base dugout. Quite the opposite, in fact. 

Cardinal designated hitter Zach Skinner went 5-for-5 with two home runs, a double and six RBIs. Half as many hits as Oklahoma (10) collected all night. Lamar scored 11(!) runs with two outs. In comparison, Oklahoma left nine runners on base. 

Oklahoma’s pitching staff simply isn’t getting it done. Too many walks. Not enough execution. It’s become a problem. A big problem. 

“It was tough to pitch last few days for sure but you can say what you want about the walks,” Johnson said. “You can say what you want to say about any of that stuff but you can’t make excuses. You’ve just got to go out there and keep pounding it.

“It was tough to pitch last few days for sure but you can say what you want about the walks. You can say what you want to say about any of that stuff but you can’t make excuses. You’ve just got to go out there and keep pounding it,” said Johnson following rough performance. 

Now the damage is done. And a reeling Oklahoma squad looks to avoid an embarrassing sweep on Saturday. A stunning reality from where this thing was just two weeks ago.

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