Oklahoma Baseball: A look Inside the Numbers

When you put a seven-spot on the board in the opening inning, you would expect that to be a good enough start to cruise to a victory. That was the case for the Oklahoma baseball bunch on Sunday, but it wasn’t even close to being enough.

The Sooners have put up quite a few numbers this season, but not enough on the scoreboard, where it counts the most.

In reality, Oklahoma’s seven-run outburst in the opening frame against West Virginia on Sunday was in response to a couple of Mountaineer runs that crossed the plate in the top half of the inning.

The Sooners scored all seven of their first-inning runs with two outs. They were highly productive early on getting their seven runs on seven hits, five of them singles.

Unfortunately, the OU bats would go cold the rest of the way, recording only three more hits off of West Virginia reliever Michael Grove, who came on in the first and stayed on the rest of the game, yielding no runs and striking out 13 Sooners in 8.1 innings of work.

After the first-inning outburst the Mountaineers outscored the host Sooners 10-0 the rest of the way to post a 12-7 victory and prevent Oklahoma from a series sweep. OU won the first two game in the weekend series, winning by scores of 1-0 and 12-6.

Oklahoma scored a total of 20 runs in the weekend series with West Virginia, which was two runs better than the Sooners 3.9 average against Big 12 teams. The problem, though, is that OU’s 58 total runs in Big 12 play is the fewest in the league and a big reason for their 6-9 record in the Big 12.

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The Sooners have won three of their five series so far against Big 12 opponents, taking two of three from Texas, Baylor and West Virginia. All three of those series wins have come at home at L. Dale Mitchell Park. They have not fared nearly as well when going on the road in the conference, being swept by TCU and Texas Tech, the two league leaders at present.

Here are a few more numbers circling the bases that offer a perspective on the Oklahoma baseball season as we get ready to begin the final month of the 2016 regular season:

.639 – Sooner shortstop Sheldon Neuse’s Big 12-leading slugging percentage.

3 – Oklahoma has started at least three freshman in 28 of the teams 41 games this season.

4 – Most wins by an Oklahoma pitcher this season. Three Sooners have four wins, including the team’s leading hitter, Sheldon Neuse, who has four wins in relief. Neuse is OU’s starting shortstop.

5 – OU had a five-run lead after the opening inning on Sunday and lost the game. The Sooners trailed by five runs in Saturday’s game with West Virginia and came back to win by six, 12-6. Such has been the unpredictability of the Sooners’ season.

5.59 – The earned run average of the OU pitching staff against five Big 12 opponents this season. The Sooner hurlers have given up 91 runs in 15 conference games, all but 10 of them earned, the second most in the conference.

9 – Oklahoma is 9-4-1 this season when the Sooners score in the first inning. Unfortunately, even a seven-run first inning against West Virginia wasn’t enough on Sunday.

12 – Number of two-base hits by three Oklahoma starters (shortstop Sheldon Neuse, right fielder Alex Wise and outfielder/DH Steele Walker), four fewer than the league leader.

14 – Oklahoma lead-off hitter, right-fielder Alex Wise, went three for five at the plate on Sunday and recorded his 14th multi-hit game of the season.

35 – Errors committed by the Sooners through all games this season. While they are near the bottom of the league in both hitting and pitching stats, they lead the Big 12 in fielding with a percentage of .978.

94 – Total bases for junior Sheldon Neuse, second best in the Big 12 in 2016. The Sooner shortstop also owns the fourth-best batting average, hitting .367 through all games.

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