Oklahoma baseball: Sooners riding Big 12 Tournament upset wave with one of their own
By Chip Rouse
Three of the four opening-round games in the 2023 Big 12 Championship went to the lower seeded teams, including the Oklahoma baseball upset of Bedlam rival Oklahoma State.
Only No. 4 seed TCU survived among the top-four seeds heading into the postseason conference tournament, and as a result the winners’ bracket has a surprising upside-down look.
The Sooners, the tournament’s No. 7 seed, sent the No. 2-seeded Cowboys to the loser’s bracket, where the latter will face No. 3 seed West Virginia in an elimination game on Thursday. West Virginia, which along with Texas and Oklahoma State finished in a three-way tie for the Big 12 regular-season title, lost 6-2 to Texas Tech on Wednesday.
Oklahoma (31-24, 11-13) will square off with the No. 6-seeded Red Raiders of Texas Tech (38-19, 12-12) at 7:30 p.m. CT on Thursday at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas. This is an intriguing matchup with the Red Raiders finishing sixth, one spot above OU in the regular-season standings, and both teams considered on the bubble to make it into the NCAA Baseball Tournament.
The general belief heading into the Big 12 Baseball Championship was that the Sooners would need to win at least one and possibly two games in the conference tournament to secure an NCAA postseason berth. They’re halfway there, making Thursday’s second-round matchup a high-stakes game for both sides.
As I’m writing this, the underdog momentum is continuing on Day 2 of the Big 12 Tournament with No. 1 seed Texas sent packing in the double-elimination tournament after being blanked 6-0 by No. 5 Kansas State.
The Sooners lost two of three games in its series against Texas Tech earlier in the season. The Red Raiders captured the first two games in the series, played in Norman in mid-April, by scores of 13-7 and 9-5,with Oklahoma avoiding a sweep in the series finale, posting a 12-2 victory.
The Sooner pitcher in the earlier win over Texas Tech was redshirt senior Braden Carmichael, who is one of two starters — graduate transfer Braxton Douthit being the other — head coach Skip Johnson will give the ball to on Thursday night against the Red Raiders. Carmichael, the Sooners best starter this season with a 7-0 record, throws from the left side, Douthit (4-5) is a right-hander.
Here is the tale of the tape for Thursday night’s matchup between OU and Texas Tech:
OU Texas Tech
Scoring 6.54 8.85
Batting average .284 .313
Home runs 44 91
On-base percentage .403 .424
Slugging percentage .424 .529
Stolen bases 108 28
ERA 5.85 4.98
Fielding percentage .970 .964
On paper, it’s pretty clear Texas Tech has the advantage in its matchup with the Sooners. The Red Raiders live by the power bat, getting runners on and driving them home with the long ball. The Sooners, on the other hand, live offensively b the old-fashioned formula of getting runners on base, getting them over and getting them in.
What we’re finding in this so far highly surprising Big 12 postseason tournament is the games aren’t being decided by what’s on paper. That could be a good thing for Oklahoma if that pattern continues.