Stormin in Norman
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Oklahoma baseball: A winning history, but minus many championships

By Chip Rouse

CHICAGO, IL - APRIL 13: Gloves and balls are seen on the field before the Chicago Cubs take on the Atlanta Braves at Wrigley Field on April 13, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois. The Braves defeated the Cubs 4-0. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL - APRIL 13: Gloves and balls are seen on the field before the Chicago Cubs take on the Atlanta Braves at Wrigley Field on April 13, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois. The Braves defeated the Cubs 4-0. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /
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Oklahoma baseball is not the revenue producer of football and baseball, nor can it claim the number of championships or No. 1 draft picks.

But what Sooner baseball can claim is a winning tradition and a place in college baseball history.

The 2018 college baseball season is making the final turn into the homestretch, and the OU baseball team is holding its own and appears primed for a postseason run.

I know it did not appear so during the second half of April, but with a regular-season-ending road trip next weekend to Kansas, which sits in next to last place in the Big 12 standings, the Sooners have a golden opportunity to improve upon their present 13-8 mark in the conference and secure a No. 3 seed in the postseason conference championship, which begins May 23.

That may not seem like much to hang your hat on, but it represents a serious improvement in OU baseball over the past five seasons.

The Sooners (31-18) play out of the conference this weekend, traveling to Florida for a three-game series with Central Florida (32-17).

Oklahoma has been playing varsity baseball for 117 seasons (this is the 118th) and, coming into this season, owns an all-time record of 2,541-1,472 That’s a winning percentage of .633, certainly nothing to go gaga over but nothing to hang your head over, either.

The Sooners have played highly competitive, respectable baseball throughout their history, but very sparingly at the championship level. Oklahoma has won two national championships (in 1951 and 1994) in 10 College World Series Appearances, but has won a regular-season conference title just nine times in its long history.

The 10 College World Series appearances by the Crimson and Cream, however, is more than all but two other Big 12 teams

Although OU has not finished higher than second in the Big 12 regular-season standings (2004, 2009 and 2010), the Sooners have won the postseason conference tournament twice (in 1997 and 2013).

Oklahoma’s best two baseball season’s in program history were back to back in 1975 and 1976. The 1975 team posted an overall record of 52-10, and followed that up with a 1976 campaign in which OU won a program-best 62 games to go with 19 losses. Both teams were coached by Enos Semore. Semore coached 22 seasons at Oklahoma and is the school’s winningest coach in baseball with a career record of 851-370-1.

The Sooners are on track to post their most conference wins in the past five seasons. They have a Big 12 record of 53-62 over the last five seasons and have averaged 10 wins per year in the conference

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