As Oklahoma prepared for its final regular-season series in Norman, the goal was pretty simple: Bounce back from a disappointing weekend on the road against Auburn. The Sooners' opponent was the Florida Gators, who were playing some of their best baseball of the entire season and were looking to keep the hot stretch going against the Sooners.
Oklahoma's hopes to host an NCAA Regional were already on thin ice heading into last weekend, but there was a hope among Sooner Nation after a pivotal come-from-behind 4-3 victory in Game 1 on Friday night. But then there were two disappointing losses followed in Game 2 and 3, including an embarrassing 13-2 run-rule defeat Sunday afternoon.
Sooners enter final weekend of regular season with hosting chances slipping away
D1Baseball now has Oklahoma in the middle of the pack of No. 2 seeds, with the Sooners at No. 21 and part of the Conway Regional with No. 9 overall seed Coastal Carolina, Virginia Tech and St. John's. Baseball America's projected field of 64 has Oklahoma as the 2-seed in the Los Angeles Regional alongside host USC, UC Santa Barbara and San Diego State.
Those results have pushed the Sooners back from hosting as a No. 1 seed to a team just hoping to find some positive momentum as the end of the regular season draws closer.
Oklahoma hits the road for its final SEC road series of the season as it takes on perennial power Arkansas. This isn't the same Razorback powerhouse that they have been over the last couple of years, but it will be another extremely difficult road test for the Sooners.
Baum-Walker Stadium is one of the elite environments in all of college baseball, and the Sooners' first trip to Fayetteville as a member of the SEC will provide a wild atmosphere. Skip Johnson's bunch have had their struggles on the road this season, holding a 7-8 record in true road games. Oklahoma is ahead of Arkansas in the conference standings as it holds a one-game lead over the Razorbacks.
If the Sooners are going to get back to their winning ways, the offense is going to have to come up with big hits. Oklahoma has struggled over the last few weeks with driving runners in, and if the Sooners are going to work their way back into the hosting mix, they are going to have to come up with the clutch hit when they need it the most and secure a series win over Arkansas, at the least.
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