It’s almost time to play ball, and the Oklahoma baseball team will open the 2020 collegiate season ranked 19th in the Baseball America preseason poll.
The Baseball America ranking is the Sooners’ second highest heading into the spring baseball schedule, which begins for OU on Feb. 14 in Pensacola, Florida, with a three-game series against the University of Virginia.
Oklahoma is also ranked in three other NCAA Division I college baseball polls. The Sooners are ranked 16th by Perfect Game, 24th in the D1Baseball Preseason Top 25 and No. 30 in Collegiate Baseball newspaper’s Top 40. OU also received votes in the USA Today Sports’ preseason coaches poll.
The Sooners were 33-23 overall a year ago and tied for sixth in the Big 12 standings with an 11-13 record. This will be head coach Skip Johnson’s third season at Oklahoma.
OU returns eight of nine position starters from last season’s squad, three starting pitchers and six relievers. Included in that group are preseason All-Americans Jason Ruffcorn and Cade Cavalli.
Ruffcorn, the Sooner closer, led the Big 12 in saves last season. He was honored as a third-team preseason All-American by Collegiate Baseball.
Cavalli, who has a dual role with the Sooners, as a starting pitcher and utility player, has been named to Baseball America’s 2020 Preseason All-America Third Team. He is one of just two players from the Big 12 to receive preseason All-America recognition by Baseball America.
Catcher Brady Lindsly and shortstop Brandon Zaragoza, both seniors, return for one final season, and junior Tyler Hardman, the Cape Cod League Home Run Derby champion, is back at first base for the Sooners. All three were All-Big 12 selections last season.
Cavalli, Ruffcorn, Lindsley and starting pither Levi Prater are all on the Preseason All-Big 12 team, and Cavalli is the Big 12 Preseason Pitcher of the Year.
The Sooners have 21 newcomers on the roster this season, including 13 freshman and eight transfers.
Oklahoma will play a 56-game schedule this spring, which includes a 24-game Big 12 slate and a total of 29 home dates. The schedule includes 29 games against nine opponents that reached the NCAA postseason a year ago.
The nonconference schedule includes games against Arkansas and LSU, ranked No. 5 and 12, respectively, in the preseason USA Today coaches poll. The Sooners will actually play the Razorbacks of Arkansas twice: once in the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic in Houston in late February, and again in a midweek game in Oklahoma City on March 17.
The Sooners will host Big 12 foes Texas, Baylor, Kansas State and West Virginia at home this season and on the road at reigning Big 12 champion Texas Tech, Kansas and TCU.