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Oklahoma baseball: Brandon Zaragoza has been stable fixture for Sooners

By Chip Rouse

Omaha, NE - JUNE 24: A general view of a baseball and glove in the the field, prior to game one of the College World Series Championship Series between the Michigan Wolverines and Vanderbilt Commodores on June 24, 2019 at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images)
Omaha, NE - JUNE 24: A general view of a baseball and glove in the the field, prior to game one of the College World Series Championship Series between the Michigan Wolverines and Vanderbilt Commodores on June 24, 2019 at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images) /
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Brandon Zaragoza became the Iron Man of Oklahoma baseball this past weekend.

In his fifth season playing for the Sooners, Zaragoza has been a fixture and a symbol of stability in the Sooner lineup for what seems like ages.

The Sooner shortstop didn’t have to travel far to play collegiate baseball. Zaragoza is from Moore, Oklahoma, a mere 15 minutes from the OU campus. He played his first game as an Oklahoma Sooner on Feb. 17, 2017. He went one-for-three at the plate in that game, a 6-2 Oklahoma season-opening win over Long Beach State, with a run batted in.

Zaragoza played in 58 of OU’s 59 games his freshman season, with 56 starts at shortstop.

Last Saturday’s doubleheader at West Virginia marked Zaragoza’s 240th and 241st consecutive game for the Sooners. That set a program record for the most consecutive games in an Oklahoma uniform. The old record was 239 games by former OU player Max White (210-2013).

With six more regular-season games remaining in the 2021 regular season followed by the Big 12 Championship, the Sooner shortstop has an opportunity to extend the record by at least another eight or nine games.

To put all of this into perspective, Zaragoza has been the starting shortstop in all but three of Oklahoma’s 253 games since his freshman season.

In addition to being a regular fixture in the lineup the past five seasons, the Sooners’ new Iron Man has been a steady performer at the plate. He has a career batting average of .265, with a high of .279 in 2018 and a low of .257 in 2019, how counting the pandemic-shortened 2020 season when Oklahoma played just 18 games before the season was cancelled.

The current season has been Zaragoza’s best in terms of total bases (53), RBI (31) and slugging percentage (.347) and second best for on-base percentage (.367).

He has also been a steady force in the field. Through 47 games this season, Zaragoza has committed just 38 errors in 904 fielding chances.

Zaragoza’s best game this season was on March 20 against Houston. The Sooner shortstop had four hits in five at bats, drove in four and scored twice in a 19-1 Oklahoma victory. The next day, he hit his first collegiate home run.

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