Oklahoma and Alabama will battle it out this weekend in an SEC matchup of top-15 teams at Sewell-Thomas Field in Tuscaloosa.
The ninth-ranked Sooners (20-3, 4-2) are off to their best start since the 2017 season when they won 21 of their first 24 games. That Oklahoma team stumbled through the Big 12 schedule, however, going just 12-19 the rest of the way.
The schedule ahead for the 2025 Sooners is more daunting than the one the 2019 team encountered. This year's team is 4-2 in conference play, having won two consecutive series. Eerily, that is the same record the 2019 OU team had in beginning its conference season.
Here's where it starts to get slippery. Oklahoma's two series wins to open its inaugural season in the SEC were against unranked SEC teams in South Carolina and Mississippi State. Starting with this weekend, the Sooners are at Alabama, and then home to face No. 8 LSU and No. 14 Vanderbilt over consecutive weekends. Those are three of the 10 SEC teams ranked this week in the D1 Baseball Top 25.
Of the Sooners' five home series this season against SEC teams, four are against four of the last five national champions (Vanderbilt 2019, Mississippi State 2021, Ole Miss 2022 and LSU 2023).
This weekend's series at Alabama will be the eighth meeting all-time between the Sooners and the Crimson Tide. Alabama is 5-2 against OU in those seven previous games. The two teams last played in 2001 with Alabama sweeping three games in Tuscaloosa. The Sooners won two of three when when they played a three-game series in Norman in 2018.
The series will be available for viewing on SEC Network+ or SEC Network. Game times are 6 p.m. CT Friday, noon on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday.
What fans need to know
Oklahoma
- Friday starter Kyson Witherspoon is 5-1 in six starts with a 1.80 earned run average. The sophomore right-hander ranks 18th nationally with a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 58-7. Dylan Brooks has assumed the role as closer and leads the SEC and is second in Division-I baseball with seven saves.
- JUCO transfer Trey Gambill leads Oklahoma in hitting with a .371 batting average, with true freshman Kyle Branch second on the team with a .352 average and team-best 31 hits.
- Since breaking into the top 25 on Feb. 24, Oklahoma has steadily moved up in the rankings to a high of No. 9 this week.
Alabama
- Alabama has scored 236 runs in 26 games this season, which is 9.1 per game. That ranks 10th in the nation. The Tide's 270 hits (10.3 per game) are the 12th-most nationally.
- The ability of Alabama to score so many runs is a direct result of a good-hitting team that is able to generate a lot of baserunners. The Crimson Tide's .438 on-base percentage is 13th-best in Division-I baseball. They also round the bases with high frequency. Alabama hitters have hit the ball out of the yard 48 times this season, and six of those have been grand slams.
- Alabama sophomore infielder Justin Lebron ranks No. 1 in the country in runs batted in with 51, tied for third in home runs (12), tied for fifth in total bases (80), tied for 12th in runs scored (31) and 36th nationally in slugging percentage (.777).
- Alabama pitching has a collective ERA of 3.73, which ranks sixth in the SEC (by contrast, OU's 4.00 staff ERA is 10th-best in the conference).
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