Stormin in Norman
Fansided

Oklahoma baseball playing its best at best time of season

By Chip Rouse

Jan 2, 2017; New Orleans , LA, USA; Oklahoma Sooners fans take photos before the 2017 Sugar Bowl against the Auburn Tigers at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 2, 2017; New Orleans , LA, USA; Oklahoma Sooners fans take photos before the 2017 Sugar Bowl against the Auburn Tigers at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports /
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Oklahoma baseball is regaining its early season mojo, and it comes at the best possible time.

The Sooners are 34-18 this season, a stellar record, without question. But they were also 26-6 at one time in 2017. Over a two-week period in mid-April, Oklahoma lost seven consecutive games and eight out of 10.

Some were questioning whether the Sooners had peaked and overachieved through the first half of the season. After all, the Big 12 Preseason Media Poll had projected them to finish sixth in the conference in 2017.

Oklahoma began the 2017 college baseball season unranked. After a 17-2 start to the season, however, the Sooners climbed into the USA Today Coaches Poll, getting as high as the mid-teens at one point before becoming mired in a two-week losing skid that sent OU tumbling backward and eventually out of USA Today top-25 rankings.

The Sooners have bounced back from the seven-game losing streak, winning seven of their last 10 games, including series wins over West Virginia and conference-leader TCU. The Sooners have won five of their seven Big 12 series so far in 2017, with a final regular-season series coming up this weekend against in-state, Bedlam Series rival Oklahoma State.

Entering the final weekend of the regular season, an unprecedented two-thirds of the Big 12 teams, including Oklahoma,  have RPIs (ratings percentage index) that fall in the top 25 in the country. That is the most of any conference.

The Sooners have played 28 consecutive games against teams that rank in the top 100 in RPI, and the series with No. 67 Oklahoma State will make it 31.

As of last weekend’s games, Texas Tech ranks the highest of the Big 12 teams, based on RPI, at No. 4., TCU is No. 6, Baylor 13, Oklahoma 17 and West Virginia 20. The Sooners won the 2017 season series with all four teams.

Through 52 games this season, Oklahoma is five games ahead of its overall win total for last season. At this point a year ago, the Sooners were 27-24-1. With a record of 12-9 in the Big 12 and three games remaining against Oklahoma State, OU has already exceeded the 11 conference wins it posted last season.

Next: Sorting out the Sooners' improbable series win over TCU

The Sooners are back in the groove again after enduring a rugged couple of weeks a month ago, and they are hoping to ride that momentum into their first NCAA appearance in four seasons. Oklahoma last appeared in the postseason NCAA Baseball Championship in 2013

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