Much like Sooner Nation had for the Oklahoma men’s basketball team early in its season, there was also hope for the OU baseball team.
Porter Moser’s squad started the basketball season 13-0 before entering its first slate in the SEC. Skip Johnson’s team also started its baseball season perfect at 11-0.
There was hope and anticipation. Then it vanished loss by loss.
Sooners struggling after hot start to baseball season
There are eerie similarities between OU's men’s basketball and baseball teams this year, even including star power on the roster.
The basketball team had star freshman point guard Jeremiah Fears, a future first-round NBA Draft pick who led OU in scoring. The baseball team has ace Kyson Witherspoon, a junior.
Witherspoon, a right-handed pitcher, has been the Sooners’ Friday starter all season and is one of the top MLB Draft prospects in the SEC, also likely going in the first round. He has a 2.40 ERA and 5-2 record in eight starts but has lost his last two outings.
But both teams learned it takes more than one player to win in the SEC, nor does a hot start mean a great finish.
After getting through its nonconference schedule unbeaten, the basketball team started SEC play on a four-game losing streak. The baseball team is currently on a four-game skid of its own after getting swept by LSU last weekend and losing to Dallas Baptist on Tuesday night in Norman.
The sweep to LSU plummeted the 23-9 Sooners nine spots in national rankings and out of the top 10 to No. 19. The basketball team, too, reached a top-10 ranking at one point, then within two weeks was nowhere to be found again in any rankings. If the baseball team has another poor showing this weekend against No. 17 Vanderbilt, it could endure the same fate.
The fall had the basketball team fighting for its NCAA Tournament life at the end of the season and needing a late run to slip into the field. Although it seems wild a currently ranked team could also be on the postseason bubble, the baseball team, like basketball, must also fight through a daunting SEC slate that could continue to beat the Sooners down the pecking order.
At one point, the basketball team had to face five ranked conference opponents in a row. Three of the baseball team's next four SEC series are against ranked teams. At least the baseball team won its first two SEC series before dropping the last two.
It was tough for Sooner Nation to witness such a fall from grace another season from Moser's program. But to possibly watch it unfold twice from two different teams in the same year would be disturbing.