Oklahoma baseball: Sooners seek return to winning ways at Minnesota

The Oklahoma baseball team steps out of the conference this week, traveling to Minneapolis for a three-game series with the University of Minnesota.

The Sooners (25-13, 6-6) have lost six of their last nine conference games and two of the last three against midweek nonconference opponents. Since March 24, when the Oklahoma season record stood at 21-4, the Sooners have gone 4-9 and are in danger of regressing further with seven consecutive road games straight ahead.

Oklahoma is averaging nearly six runs per game, but in its last six losses the Sooners have averaged just 2.37 runs per contest.

After losing two of three at Baylor over the weekend, the Sooners fell 3-2 to Oral Roberts on Tuesday, losing for a second time to the Golden Eagles this season.

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The Sooners will be facing a Minnesota Gopher team that is 16-18 overall this season and 7-5 in the Big Ten Conference. The two teams have played just one time previously, in 1973, with the Gophers posting a 1-0 decision in the opening game of the College World Series. The winning pitcher in that game was Hall of Famer Dave Winfield, who struck out 14 Sooners in a complete-game victory.

The Oklahoma offense has been highly inconsistent since opening the conference season with a three-game home sweep of Kansas. The Sooners rank fifth in the Big 12 with a team batting average of .271.

Only one OU position player is hitting over .300. Sophomore first baseman Tyler Hardman leads the team in batting average (.333), hits (51), home runs (5), runs batted (31) in and total bases (78).

Although the Sooner bats have been sputtering, the pitching has been strong. Oklahoma leads the Big 12 with a staff ERA of .318, which ranks in the top 20 among NCAA Division I teams. OU pitchers are allowing 3.71 runs per game. During the Sooners recent losing skid, though, the offense hasn’t provided enough run support.

While Oklahoma ranks 117th nationally in hitting (with a .271 team batting average), Minnesota has fared even worse. No player in the Minnesota starting lineup is hitting above .300, and as a team the Gophers rank 142nd with a .265 average.

The best hitters on the Minnesota roster are sophomore pitcher/outfielder Max Meyer and junior catcher Eli Wilson, who are hitting .292 and .291, respectively. The power bat in the Gopher lineup belongs to infielder Jordan Kozicky, who leads the team with 6 home runs and 33 RBI.

The Sooners might also benefit from a Minnesota pitching staff that is allowing 4.71 earned runs per game, nearly 1.5 runs more than OU pitching.

All 17 of Oklahoma’s remaining regular-season games are against teams currently ranked in the top 100 of the NCAA RPI, including nine games against teams ranked in the top 50. The Sooners are No. 43 in the current NCAA RPI rankings.