It may only be a smidgeon of a sample size, but if the Sooners' starting pitching is perceived to be a weakness, or at least a viable concern, the season-opening weekend spoke otherwise.
OU lost ace of the staff and Friday starter Kyson Witherspoon, his brother Malachi and Cade Crossland to the MLB Draft after last season. That threesome made 44 of the 60 OU starts last season and accounted for 46% of the innings pitched by the entire staff. The trio anchored a Sooner staff that ranked sixth in the SEC in conference games.
Oklahoma opened the 2026 season this past weekend against several familiar foes and in a familiar venue, Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, home of the MLB's Texas Rangers. This was the fifth year Oklahoma competed in a season-opening event at the Rangers' new indoor ballpark.
The weekend competition comprised a Big 12 reunion of sorts with the Sooners' three opponents being Texas Tech, longtime Bedlam rival Oklahoma State and TCU, the almost unanimous choice of Big 12 coaches to win the Big 12 this season and a top-10 team in national rankings.
The Sooners, picked to finish 14th out of 16 SEC teams in the 2026 preseason poll, completed a sweep of their three former conference compatriots and in surprisingly easy fashion. The OU bats were rocking, pounding out 34 hits, including eight home runs, and scoring 32 runs. But it was the performance of the Oklahoma pitchers that was the bigger storyline from the weekend.
Pitching powers Sooners to season-opening sweep in Big 12 reunion
With five position starters and four of last season's top five hitters back again for another go at it in 2026, head coach Skip Johnson wasn't really concerned that this season's edition of Oklahoma baseball wouldn't be able to get on base and produce runs. That was in full evidence over this past weekend. Could the OU pitching staff prevent the opponents from bettering the Sooners in the scoring department? That was to be determined.
Junior Cameron Johnson, who started seven games for Oklahoma last season, drew the opening day call against Texas Tech and set the tone and the bar for the OU pitchers for the entire weekend. The hard-throwing left-hander worked 6.0 innings, allowing one run on just three hits and striking out 11. The Sooners led 3-1 when the game was turned over to the bullpen for the final three innings. OU scored seven times over the eighth and ninth innings and ended up winning the game 10-2, but it was Johnson's shutdown performance early that anchored the victory.
During the offseason, Oklahoma went to the Transfer Portal to bring in an experienced arm as a potential starter and found what they liked at UNLV in right-handed strikeout pitcher LJ Mercurius, who was rated the No. 1 right-handed pitcher in Nevada coming out of high school in 2023. Mercurius made 11 starts last season as a sophomore at UNLV. He had a 4-3 record with a 3.47 ERA and struck out 58 hitters in 53 innings.
Mercurius took the hill on Saturday for OU against in-state rival Oklahoma State. The Sooners have struggled in recent matchups with their longtime rivals, going 4-8 over the past three seasons. Oklahoma took command of the game from the opening pitch on Saturday. The Sooners jumped on the Cowboys early for three runs in the first two innings, adding seven more before they were finished on the way to a 10-2 victory.
Mercurius allowed just one hit over the first four innings while striking out nine. He ended up going 5.1 innings before Johnson turned the day's work over to the relief corps. While he was in there, Mercurius allowed one run on three hits and ended up striking out a career high-tying 12 of the 24 batters he faced, most by waving at a third strike. He struck out the side in two of his five-plus innings.
Relievers Michael Catalano and Reid Hensley finished out what Mercurius had brilliantly gotten started, allowing no runs and just one hit while adding four more punchouts to the day's work for a total of 17.
Through the first two games of the weekend, the Oklahoma pitching staff had polished off two impressive wins, giving up just three total runs on 10 scattered hits and an eye-popping 30 strikeouts of 70 batters faced. And perhaps the biggest surprise was yet to come.
TCU was the Sooners' opponent in the weekend finale on Sunday, a tall order indeed for freshman pitcher Cord Rager, who was making his first collegiate start. Coming out of high school in Maypearl, Texas, the Sooner left-hander was recruited as both a first baseman and a pitcher. He was rated as the No. 10 first baseman nationally, and here he was starting on the mound on opening weekend of the 2026 season.
Johnson, regarded as one of the premier pitching coaches in the college game, obviously knew what he was doing in going with the young left-hander against a veteran TCU starting lineup. Rager set the tone for his outing in the first inning, retiring the side in order on strikeouts. It was more of the same for the next four innings. Rager exited the game after five full innings, allowing one run on two hits, striking out a total of eight TCU hitters and issuing three free passes, a quality first start against a very talented opponent.
Another Sooner two-way player, junior Gavyn Jones, who doubles as an outfielder, finished up on the mound in relief of Rager, but he only had to go two innings as Oklahoma pounded out 12 runs and 13 hits off four TCU pitchers in finishing off a 12-2 run-rule victory over the Horned Frogs in a game that ended after seven innings.
Oklahoma was the only team of the event to win all three of its games, with all three starting pitchers earning their first win of the season. Mercurius and Rager were both honored honored by the SEC for their outstanding weekend performance, named Co-Pitcher and Co-Freshman of the Week, respectively.
The Sooners capped off a perfect President's Day holiday with another double-digit victory, 10-6, over New Mexico State on Monday to begin the season 4-0. The game was originally scheduled to be played in Norman but was moved to Globe Life Field because weather conditions had delayed outfield construction at Kimrey Family Stadium (formerly L. Dale Mitchell Stadium).
Oklahoma is back home this weekend for its home opener at Kimrey Family Stadium for a three-game series against Coppin State. That will be followed by a pair of home games with Arizona State on Tuesday and Wednesday.
As a result of the Sooners' 4-0 start to the season, they moved up four spots this week in the Baseball America national rankings to No. 15.