Oklahoma baseball: Sooners looking for home bounce-back against TCU
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma baseball returns home to L. Dale Mitchell Park this weekend for a matchup of two Big 12 teams ranked among the nation’s top 25 teams.
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The No. 23 Sooners (22-8, 4-2) host 25th-ranked TCU (18-9, 3-3). Oklahoma hopes to rebound from a disappointing past week in which the Sooners lost three of four games, including two of three at West Virginia.
TCU’s past week wasn’t much better. The Horned Frogs lost a three-game series at home against Big 12 co-leader Oklahoma State, dropping the final two games of the series, both by a single run.
The Sooners hold a 61-34 advantage all-time against TCU, but the Horned Frogs are 11-7 against OU as members of the Big 12.
Oklahoma’s 22 wins are the most in the Big 12 so far this season, and its .733 winning percentage is second only to Baylor.
The Sooners, who are 15-2 at home this season, will be looking for strong pitching performances this weekend from a staff that ranks 12th nationally with a collective ERA of 2.93. Sophomore right-hander Cade Cavalli will take the mound for OU in the series opener with TCU. Cavalli has a 4-1 record with an ERA of 1.66.
Cavalli will be opposed on Friday by TCU ace Nick Lodolo, a left-hander with a record of 4-2 and an impressive 1.12 ERA. Lodollo was the Big 12 Pitcher of the Week this past week and leads the Big 12 in strikeouts, averaging close to 12 per nine innings.
Right-hander Nathan Wiles ( 5-1, 3.27 ERA) and southpaw Levi Prater (5-2, 1.59) will complete the weekend starting rotation for the Sooners.
The Sooners are batting .273 as a team, which puts them in the middle of the pack in the Big 12 in that category, and are averaging 6.3 runs per game. Sophomore first baseman Tyler Hardman leads the OU position players with a .328 batting average. He ranks second in the Big 12 with 41 hits and id tied for third with 29 runs batted in. He has had 14 multi-hit games this season and seven multiple RBI games.
Oklahoma pitching has allowed three or fewer runs in 19 of 30 games this season and one or no runs 12 times. The Sooners will need that kind of performance against a good-hitting TCU team that ranks second in the Big 12 with a batting average of .313 and leads the conference with an on-base percentage of .421.
First baseman Jake Guenther and left fielder Josh Watson lead TCU offensive attack. Guenther averages .363 at the plate with 22 RBI, and Watson is hitting .349 to go along with 12 doubles, 27 runs scored and 22 RBI. Both players rank in the top 10 in the conference in hitting.
Both OU and TCU wield some offensive firepower, so the outcome of this series could well come down to the performance of the respective pitching staffs.
The series gets underway at 6 p.m. CDT on Friday, with afternoon games scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.