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Oklahoma baseball: Sooners open 2022 season in State Farm Showdown

By Chip Rouse

FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS - MAY 22: Basket of SEC baseballs for batting practice of the Florida Gators before a game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Baum-Walker Stadium at George Cole Field on May 22, 2021 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Razorbacks defeated the Gators to sweep the series 9-3. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS - MAY 22: Basket of SEC baseballs for batting practice of the Florida Gators before a game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Baum-Walker Stadium at George Cole Field on May 22, 2021 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Razorbacks defeated the Gators to sweep the series 9-3. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images) /
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While the start of spring training and the Major League Baseball season remains in uncertainty and under a lockout imposed by the MLB owners, Oklahoma baseball and the college edition of the national pastime is set to get underway this weekend.

The Sooners open the season with a three-game slate beginning Friday in the State Farm College Baseball Showdown in Arlington, Texas.

Globe Life Field, home of the Texas Rangers, is the venue for the tournament, which features three Big 12 teams (the Sooners, 14th-ranked Texas Tech and Kansas State) against Auburn from the SEC, Michigan from the Big Ten and Arizona out of the Pac-12.

Oklahoma opens on Friday with a matchup against Auburn, a team like the Sooners a year ago that did not have a winning record. Auburn was 25-27 last season and finished sixth in the seven-team SEC West.

On Saturday, Oklahoma faces Arizona, the reigning Pac-12 champion last season with a 45-18 overall record, and the Sooners finish out the weekend against the Michigan Wolverines, who finished third in the Big Ten a year ago with a 27-17 record.

The Sooners are 39-21 all-time on opening day and are 9-4 in the last 13 seasons.

Oklahoma finished one game under .500 last season at 27-28 and tied for fifth place in the Big 12. The Sooners are projected to finish sixth this season in the Big 12, according to the annual preseason poll of the league coaches.

The Sooners lose two of their top three hitters from the 2021 season. All-American candidate Peyton Graham is the team’s best returning hitter. A third-year sophomore third baseman, Graham batted .288 last season with 11 home runs and 47 runs batted in in 53 games last season. Also back this season is catcher Jimmy Crooks, who was the Sooners’ fourth leading hitter in 2021 with a .287 average, 10 home runs and 39 RBI.

Brandon Carmichael is the best of the returning starters on the pitching staff. But that may be a dubious distinction on a 2021 staff that finished dead last in the Big 12 in several major statistical categories. The left-hander Carmichael made 14 starts last season and finished with a 6-3 record but with an ERA over 5.00. Redshirt sophomore Jake Bennett will also be part of the OU rotation in 2022. Bennett made 13 starts a year ago and compiled a 4-3 record with a 6.34 ERA with 60 strikeouts in 55.1 innings.

Someone to keep an eye on among the Sooner pitchers, however, is true freshman Keegan Allen. The right-handed hurler was the No. 1 pitcher in the state of Arkansas and No. 84 nationally, according to the experts at Perfect Game.

Oklahoma head coach Skip Johnson is hoping to return to a winning record and back to the top half of the final Big 12 standings in the 2022 campaign. That will be a challenge in itself in a conference with four teams ranked in the D1 Baseball Top 25. The Sooners have not finished higher than fourth in the Big 12 since the 2018 season.

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