Sooners baseball headed to Sin City

Over the last couple of years sponsored round-robin tournaments have begun to pop up more and more throughout the college baseball world, and the Sooners are in another one. 

Oklahoma opened the season in Arlington at the Shriner’s Children College Classic, picking up wins over Tennessee and Nebraska. This week they head to Sin City for the inaugural Las Vegas Baseball Classic at Las Vegas Ballpark where they’ll take on Pittsburgh (4 p.m. Friday), California (6 p.m. Saturday) and Ohio State (1 p.m. Sunday). 

While offering intriguing early season match-ups for the college baseball junkie, it also serves a purpose for the teams that are playing. 

There’s a bit of truth-seeking done at these early season revivals. What are the strengths of a ballclub? What areas need to improve? Who can be counted on? It’s all a build-up of sorts as teams work through their non-conference schedule in preparation for conference play, and ultimately, the NCAA Tournament.  

“Our schedule going into conference is really tough. Play good teams, and they’re all going to help you,” said Oklahoma head coach Skip Johnson. “I mean you want to play the teams that you’re probably going to see in a regional. They really exploit what you need to work on. If you don’t hold runners or if you chase pitches or don’t throw strikes. There’s a lot of things. You’ll see good arms. The Friday night guy for Pitt is going to be 92-97 (miles per hour) so that’ll tell you something.

“That’s how our league is. Every night you’re going to go out there and see a quality arm. So playing those non-conference games will prepare you for those conference games.” 

This weekend’s trip to Las Vegas no different. 

“Pitt is really good. I mean they’re really good. They have one of the best freshman hitters in the country,” Johnson said. “The Friday night starter we’re going to face is really good, 92-96. Cal is probably one of the better teams in the country right now. I mean, their centerfielder is a really good player. Their catcher is really good. And Ohio State is always going to be good. All three teams are well coached.

“It’s going to be a fun weekend. No different than the opening weekend, really. It’s like a regional.”

All of the games this weekend in Las Vegas can be seen on D1Baseball.com (subscription required). 

NO REASON FOR CONCERN 

It wasn’t so much that they lost the final game of the Wright State series, but it was how they lost the Sunday finale of the four-game series. 

After exploding for 44 runs in the first three games of the series, Oklahoma seemed lifeless at the plate on getaway day. Wright State hitters took out a weekend’s worth of frustration as well. By day’s end it was an ugly 12-2 loss. 

The first real setback of the season. First real ass-whoopin. It happens. 

“I think they’ll come back and compete. I mean, that’s one thing that they’ve done most of the time all year long through the fall,” Johnson said. “The first game of the year we lose and come back and beat probably one of the best teams we are going to play all year. And so I don’t think that’ll be a problem at all.  

“The sense of urgency has got to be different. I don’t know if we’re flat or what. I mean, all said we get hit in the mouth and never really could seem to get things to fall or anything.” 

Though come next weekend when conference play begins those Sunday games count just as much as the headliner opener on Friday night. A team’s ability to close the weekend is just as important as opening. Consider the Sunday no-show a lesson learned. 

“I think that’s something that comes from the core of the guys,” said senior outfielder Kendall Pettis. “If you don’t have a group of guys who don’t really want to go for the throat every time then your team is just not going to be one of those that does that.

“I think we have that. I think we’ve got some tough guys. We hate losing. We don’t like to lose. Whenever we can beat up on a team we’re going to beat up on a team.” 

CHAOS BUT DIFFERENT 

Since Reggie Willits arrival to Oklahoma, the ‘Chaos’ moniker has represented the Oklahoma offense well. Most of the time you automatically think about the stolen bases. It’s been a constant with elite team speed up and down the roster. 

Oklahoma stole 114 bases last season. In 2022, they stole 145. It marked the first time since 1988-89 that the Sooners had 100-plus stolen bases in back-to-back seasons. 

However, this season has been different. Oklahoma seemingly hasn’t been as aggressive in the stolen base department. Sure it’s early, just eight games in but the stolen bases number is down. Some of it is roster set-up. Some of it is not as many opportunities to swipe bases against good teams.

“I think it’s two fold deal. Also not having as much speed in certain situations,” Johnson said. “Hitting more doubles in certain situations. Letting the game play itself out.

“When you face a good team I think that you’re going to struggle sometimes stealing bases. We kind of got it going there for a little bit but we did something totally different. Bunted more. We hit behind runners. One thing that I’m really excited about as the head coach is just what they’re doing with men in scoring position. Second and third with less than two outs. We’ve been really good at that. I think that is even bigger. Run scoring is run scoring. Stealing bases are good. I think those things will come. We’re not built like we had been in the past where we have nine guys that can really fly.” 

But make no mistake about it. The ‘chaos’ is still there. It’s just in a different form. 

Oklahoma ranks No. 21 in team batting average (.343) and doubles (22). Seven different Sooners have logged three-hit games. That number expands to ten players when talking about multi-hit games. This offense can be really good even without running wild on the basepaths. 

DUAL-BACKSTOPS?

Perhaps one of the more surprising developments of the early season has been the fact that JUCO catcher Scott Mudler has started five of the Sooners eight games behind the plate. 

Easton Carmichael’s struggles behind the dish in the opening weekend were well documented. And no, you’re not taking the bat out of Carmichael’s hands. But Mudler’s production at the plate has made it much easier to put him in the line-up daily. A good kind of surprise for Skip Johnson. 

“I’ve been really pleased with Scott’s offensive production more so than anything because he wasn’t that offensive in the fall. He’s been really offensive in the spring. That’s just a testament to what Russell (Raley) and Reggie (Willits) and Todd (Butler) have done to get him going in the offense,” said Johnson. 

After hitting just .221 last season at Northwest Florida State, Mudler is hitting .381 coming off his best weekend as a Sooner highlighted by a three-hit game in the second game of last weekend’s double-header. 

Even with Mudler’s surprise production at the plate, Johnson and the Oklahoma staff isn’t giving up on Carmichael behind the plate. It’s a long season. 

“Easton is an offensive player and he’s struggled some defensively a little bit and you just got to keep trying to throw him out there and put him in at the right time and everything else will come back. He’s too talented to not to do that,” said Johnson. 

A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE

It’s never too early to start dreaming of future schedules and what’s to come with Oklahoma’s addition to the Southeastern Conference. 

While we don’t know exactly what that schedule will look like we did get an appetizer via the interwebs with a report the defending national champion LSU Tigers will be headed to Norman in 2025 for a conference series. 

Jay Johnson also dropped the nugget that his Tiger baseball team will travel to both Texas and Oklahoma for SEC series next season in 2025

— Michael Cauble (@Cauble) February 29, 2024

Welcome to the SEC, eh? 

WEEKEND PITCHING MATCH-UPS

Friday: Braden Davis (1-0, 0.82 ERA, 3 BB/15 SO) vs. RHP Ryan Andrade (0-0, 4.70 ERA, 7 BB, 10 SO)
Saturday: Brendan Girton (0-0, 2.35 ERA, 5 BB, 11 SO) vs. LHP Luke Short (0-0, 5.40 ERA, 5 BB, 6 SO) 
Sunday: Jamie Hitt (0-1, 11.05 ERA, 2 BB, 13 SO) vs. Gavin Bruni (1-0, 3.86 ERA, 5 BB, 11 SO)