Oklahoma baseball season likely ends in Big 12 Championship double loss

Oklahoma baseball’s 2021 Big 12 Tournament run is over and likely the season.

The Sooners were hoping for a deeper run in this week’s Big 12 Championship tournament to bolster their resume for an NCAA postseason appearance. But all that has likely now evaporated after No. 4-seeded Oklahoma lost to No. 4 Oklahoma State on Wednesday and then to No. 1 Texas on Thursday at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City..

Oklahoma’s appearance in the double-elimination Big 12 Championship was less than 24 hours in duration.

Down 9-0 to Oklahoma State heading to the ninth inning, the Sooners rallied for five runs on just one hit in the top of the ninth but came up four runs short. That sent OU to the loser’s bracket in the double-elimination Big 12 Championship, where, of all teams, the Sooners found No. 1 Texas waiting.

The Longhorns had been upset by No. 8 West Virginia the day before and came into the elimination contest against Oklahoma with a big chip on their shoulder and a refuse-to-lose mentality. In other words, OU’s odds of pulling off a second straight upset over top-seeded Texas were extremely low.

Three Sooner pitchers held Big 12 regular-season champion Texas to just five hits, but that was enough offense to produce four runs. The Longhorns made those four runs stand up, holding Oklahoma to just a single run on five hits for a 4-1 victory and remain alive as the tournament’s top seed.

Oklahoma’s 2021 season has probably ended. If so, the Sooners will finish the year with a below-.500, 27-28 overall record. You have to go back to 2003 for the last season in which Oklahoma finished with a losing season record in baseball.

It clearly was not the ending to the 2021 season the OU baseball squad was hoping for, and because of the Sooner’s quick exit from the conference tournament — which was being contested for the final time virtually in OU’s back yard — it probably means that the Sooners will be hanging up their glove and cleats until next year.

Oklahoma now has a record of 38-41 in Big 12 Championship tournament history, and is one of just two schools to have participated in all 24  conference tournaments.

If the Sooners’ are indeed done for this season, there are some positives they can take away from the 2021 campaign:

• Despite going just two-for-eight in the Sooners’ two Big 12 Tournament losses,  junior first baseman Tyler Hardman is probably going to end up as the Big 12 batting champion. Hardman’s .397 average is 14 points higher than the next closest challenger in the conference and ranks 22nd in NCAA Division I baseball this season.
• Oklahoma recorded five wins over teams ranked in the top 25 this season, including an 8-5 win on the road over No. 1 Arkansas on March 16.
• The Sooners’ season may be over, but as of Friday’s games, OU led the Big 12 in hits and doubles and is second in team batting average. The Sooners are third in the conference in runs, triples and strikeouts per nine innings. Not the kind of stats you would expect from a team with a very early exit from the conference postseason tournament.
• Thirty-five percent of Oklahoma’s hits this season have gone for extra bases.
• Fifth-year senior Brandon Zaragoza now owns the Oklahoma program record for most games played in a career. He has played in 250 career games and started in 248 of them. The Sooner shortstop passed former OU player Max White, who played in 239 games from 2010 to 2013.