Oklahoma Baseball: Winning the College World Series Is a Long, Difficult Journey

By Chip Rouse | Jun 28, 2016

Jun 19, 2015; Omaha, NE, USA; Bleach balls fill the bleachers during a break in action between against the Vanderbilt Commodores and against the TCU Horned Frogs in the 2015 College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park. Mandatory Credit: Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports /

The 2016 College World Series is nearing the finish line and where, just a few short days ago, there were three Big 12 schools in the title hunt, now there are none. The Big 12 has been an on-and-off participant the past five years, but Oklahoma baseball has not been one of the conference teams making it to Omaha any time recently.

For the past five seasons, its has been feast or famine as far as the Big 12’s participation in the College World Series.

This year, as in 2014, three teams from the conference made it all the way through the NCAA regional brackets and advanced to Omaha and the CWS. But in the odd years (2015 and 2013) and also in 2012, the final eight teams that make up the CWS field was void of any Big 12 teams.

The Sooners are one of eight Big 12 teams to have appeared in the College World Series in the 20-year Big 12 era (the others are Texas, Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor, Oklahoma State, Nebraska and Texas A&M). The Longhorns have by far the most CWS appearances as a member of the Big 12 (9), including two national championships (2002 and 2005).

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Oklahoma has made only one CWS appearances under the Big 12 banner. That was in 2010, when the Sooners went 1-2 and were eliminated by eventual national-champion South Carolina team that included two players currently starting on MLB teams (Whit Merrifield of the Kansas City Royals and Jackie Bradley, Jr., the starting left fielder for the Boston Red Sox).

In fact, OU baseball has failed to make it to the postseason the last two seasons, and that was after a string of six consecutive years in which the Sooners made NCAA Tournament appearances and 13 times total since the formation of the Big 12 in 1996.

Despite the disappointment of the past two seasons, however, Oklahoma has experienced success at the national level in college baseball. The Sooners own two national championships in the sport (1951 and 1994) and were the last current Big 12 member other than Texas to take home the CWS championship hardware, defeating Georgia Tech for the title in 1994.

The Sooners have also won 22 conference championships, but none in the regular season while in the Big 12. OU did, however, capture Big 12 postseason conference tournament titles in 1997 and 2013.

Here’s a fun fact from OU baseball history that might surprise you. There have only been nine head coaches in program history. That compares with 21 head coaches in the Sooners’ much more successful and storied football history.

Enos Semore is the winningest coach in Sooner baseball history with 851 wins over a 22-year period. The longest tenured OU baseball coach was Semore’s predecessor, Jack Baer, who served in the head coach’s role for 26 years from 1942 to 1967.

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