There is a new captain in town as Oklahoma Sooners baseball coach Pete Hughes took the field on Tuesday for the first time with his new baseball team. The former Virginia Tech Hokies head coach is taking over for a very successful coach in Sunny Golloway, and he knows he has a lot to live up to. However, this isn’t about comparing himself to Golloway, it is about winning baseball games with the Oklahoma Sooners.
Hughes is the ninth head coach in Oklahoma Sooners baseball history, and the two men he followed are both known winners. Golloway finished his Oklahoma Sooners career with a 346-181-1 record, including three Super Regionals, four Regionals and one College World Series appearance. He only missed the postseason once in his career at OU. He replaced Larry Cochell, who went 450-281-1 at OU and retired with 1,246 career victories.
Now, it is time for the Pete Hughes era, the head coach entering this season with a 524-385-2 record at West Virginia, Boston College and Trinity (Texas) University. He coached the Hokies to the NCAA Tournament in 2010 and 2013 and hopes to continue that success at OU.
Fall Oklahoma Sooners baseball runs from now until Oct. 24 when they will play an intra-squad game for ALS Awareness. Even more exciting is that all practices, which starts at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, are open to the public to watch.
“Our goals today were to go for two hours at a good tempo and with the right sense of urgency,” Hughes said. “For a team learning a new coaching staff, I thought they did a great job. I thought it was a good, clean practice.”
One thing that Hughes said he plans to do in these practices is make players play out of their regular positions. He said that all players will play at every position until they are comfortable playing anywhere on the field. That should make OU a more versatile team.
“It’s a new start; a new practice structure,” Hughes said. “We need to take our time and get our progressions right. Today was a lot of teaching and a lot of evaluating. I thought our kids controlled the one thing they could and that was the tempo and the pace. I thought it was great.”
Stormin in Norman will be bringing you some photos from upcoming Oklahoma Sooners baseball practices in the coming week as Pete Hughes gets his team ready for the 2014 college baseball season.
"Follow Shawn S. Lealos on Twitter @sslealos."