Oklahoma baseball: Sooners set for weekend series at Big 12 leader West Virginia

Over the last month, the Oklahoma baseball team has risen from a 4-8 record and the Big 12 basement, winning five of the last six conference games to improve to 9-9 in league play and move into a tie for fifth place in the conference standings.

Now, for the second time in the past two weeks, the Sooners (25-20, 9-9) go up against the Big 12 leader. Two weeks ago, it was Texas leading the field. The Sooners rolled into Austin, Texas, in last place and rolled out three games later with a series sweep.

OU has the opportunity to play spoiler all over again this weekend with a three-game conference series in Morgantown, West Virginia, against the first-place Mountaineers (34-11, 11-4).

The Sooners lead the all-time series against West Virginia, which is not a long one, given the Mountaineers mere 12-year existence as a member of the Big 12, with a record of 19-13. OU is 7-5 in games played in Morgantown and has won five of the last six meetings between the two teams.

The trip to West Virginia continues a seven-game road swing for the Sooners. Following the road trip east to West Virginia, Oklahoma heads the opposite direction next weekend, traveling to Spokane, Washington for an extremely rare late-season nonconference series with Gonzaga.

The Sooners are coming off a series win over Kansas (two games to one) last weekend and a 10-7 win over 16th-ranked Dallas Baptist earlier this week. West Virginia has won nine consecutive games, including series sweeps over TCU and Baylor in its last two Big 12 series.

What fans need to know about the OU-West Virginia series this weekend

• The Sooners are 4-5 in Big 12 road games this season.
• There is a good reason West Virginia is sitting in the catbird seat in the Big 12 standings. The Mountaineers rank second in the Big 12 in both hitting .306 team batting average and 8.4 runs scored per game) and pitching (4.13 staff ERA).
• West Virginia has two of the top-four hitters in the Big 12. Sophomore infielder JJ Wetherholt leads the league with a .470 batting average, and fellow infielder Tevin Tucker is sporting a .367 average.
• Redshirt junior outfielder Kendall Pettis leads OU in hitting with a .325 average. Sam Houston State transfer Anthony Mackenzie is right behind Pettis with a .324 batting average. Another OU newcomer this season, junior-college transfer Bryce Madron, leads the Sooners in the power department with nine home runs along with 35 runs batted in. Madron also has been patient at the plate, drawing 47 walks, which leads the Big 12 and ranks fifth nationally.
• Graduate transfer Braxton Douthit is expected to get the start for the Sooners on Friday. Douthit is 4-3 in 11 starts this season with an ERA of 4.26. Senior left-hander Braden Carmichael (4-0, 3.59 ERA) and another lefty, James Hitt (4-0, 4.22) are the scheduled starters for games two and three of the West Virginia series. Carmichael has won his last three starts in Big 12 games.
• The Oklahoma strength of schedule this season is the best in the Big 12 and 19th most difficult in Division I baseball.