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Oklahoma baseball: Disappointing end to a perplexing 2019 season

By Chip Rouse

Omaha, NE - JUNE 27: The Arkansas Razorbacks take batting practice, prior to game two of the College World Series Championship Series against the Oregon State Beavers on June 27, 2018 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images)
Omaha, NE - JUNE 27: The Arkansas Razorbacks take batting practice, prior to game two of the College World Series Championship Series against the Oregon State Beavers on June 27, 2018 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images) /
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The 2019 Oklahoma baseball season ended abruptly last week with back-to-back losses in the Big 12 Championship.

The Sooners ended the season with a 33-23 overall record and a sixth-place tie in the Big 12 (11-13) after beginning the 2019 campaign with a 21-4 record after 25 games. OU lost 19 of its final 31 games, none more painful than in the final two games, when the Sooners were outscored by Baylor and TCU by the combined score of 23-5.

Five Big 12 teams (Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Baylor, West Virginia and TCU) earned bids to this year’s NCAA Championship. OU won’t be making a postseason appearance this season for the first time in three years. The Sooners have made 13 NCAA appearances in the last two decades. Their last trip to the College World Series, however, was nine years ago (2010).

Skip Johnson ended his second season as the Sooners’ head coach much like his first. OU was 38-25 a year ago and 14-10 in the Big 12. That was good enough, however, to make it into the NCAA Tournament, where the Sooners went 2-2 in the Tallahassee Regional.

Here is a quick recap of the Sooners’ 2019 baseball season in a dozen numbers:

0 — Number of Oklahoma hitters with a batting average above .300 in Big 12 games this season.

.979 — OU’s fielding percentage this season, No. 1 in the Big 12.

3 — Number of Big 12 series won by Oklahoma this season against the eight other schools that participate in baseball (Kansas, Kansas State and Texas).

3.26 — Sophomore left-handed starter, Levi Prater’s earned run average for the season, fifth best in the Big 12. His .211 opponents’ batting average also ranked fifth among Big 12 pitchers.

4 — Oklahoma has been excluded from NCAA postseason play in four of the last 10 seasons.

5.5 — Average runs scored per game by the OU offense in 2019 (all games). Sooner pitching allowed an average of 4.3 runs by OU’s opponents.

4-12 — The Sooners’ record against teams ranked in the top-50 of the new NCAA Division I RPI for baseball.

11 — Big 12-best saves recorded by OU junior Jason Ruffcorn this season.

19 — Oklahoma’s national ranking in the Collegiate Baseball Top 25 on March 26.

29 — OU hit 29 home runs as a team this season, the second fewest in the Big 12 (Texas was last with 27).

43 — Oklahoma’s final ranking in the NCAA RPI.

51 — Home runs given up by Oklahoma pitchers in the 2019 season, second most in the Big 12.

Statistical information the appears in this article was extracted, in part, from the baseball statistics published by the Big 12.

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