Many Oklahoma fans were looking forward to a potential Women's College World Series matchup in softball between the Sooners and Nebraska. They are still going to get an OU-Nebraska matchup, but instead on an NCAA Regional baseball diamond.
The Sooners (35-20) will face longtime former conference rival Nebraska in the Chapel Hill Regional this weekend. North Carolina is the No. 5 national seed in the NCAA Baseball Championship and the top seed and host in the double-elimination regional tournament. Oklahoma is the 2-seed in the Chapel Hill Regional and Nebraska is the 3-seed.
Oklahoma and Nebraska are old conference rivals in a series that dates back to 1962 insofar as baseball. The two teams last played a year ago in an early nonconference game as part of the Shriners Children's College Showdown. OU won that game 7-6. Before that, however, OU and the Huskers had not played each other since 2011, when Nebraska left the Big 12 to join the Big Ten.
Oklahoma leads the all-time series with Nebraska 118-94-1. As members of the Big 12, though, the Cornhuskers owned a 28-15-1 advantage versus the Sooners.
Nebraska's season record may seem somewhat pedestrian, but the Cornhuskers appear to be peaking at the right time of the season. They've won seven of their last nine games, including winning the Big Ten Tournament championship last weekend.
Oklahoma, on the other hand, struggled down the stretch in the regular season, losing six of its last nine games. The Sooners did, however, defeat No. 13 Kentucky and No. 5 Georgia before losing to eventual conference tournament champion Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament.
First pitch for the Oklahoma-Nebraska matchup in the NCAA Chapel Hill Regional at North Carolina's Boshamer Stadium is set for 4 p.m. CT on Friday.
What fans need to know for OU-Nebraska NCAA Regional matchup
Oklahoma
- OU was ranked 26th in the final RPI and with a strength of schedule that ranked 15th nationally. The Sooners have nine wins against teams ranked in the RPI top 25 and 12 wins against teams in the NCAA Tournament field.
- The Sooners will go as far in this year's NCAA Tournament as their pitching staff will take them, and the ace of the staff is junior right-hander Kyson Witherspoon. The projected first-round pick in the upcoming MLB Draft is 10-3 this season and leads the SEC with a 2.47 ERA and 91 innings pitched, and ranks fourth in the league in strikeouts with 120. As a staff, Sooner pitchers rank seventh in the SEC with a 4.44 ERA, and closer Dylan Crooks is second in the league with 14 saves.
- Oklahoma is led offensively by junior catcher Easton Carmichael, who is hitting a team-best .321 with 14 home runs and 55 runs batted in. Shortstop Jaxon Willits has wielded a hot bat in recent games. The sophomore shortstop is hitting .305 for the season with nine home runs and 42 RBI. Last week in the SEC Tournament, he had four hits in seven at-bats.
- The Sooner defense has been a liability as OU enters NCAA postseason play. The Sooners have committed 55 errors this season, fourth-most in the SEC and ranks 110th in Division I softball with a .972 fielding percentage.
Nebraska
- Senior left-hander Jackson Brockett is 4-0 with an ERA of 1.93 in his last six starts. Brockett led the Huskers to a 7-3 win over No. 4 Oregon last week in the Big Ten Tournament, giving up just one run on six hits and striking out four in six strong innings.
- Nebraska is not a strong or power-laden offensive team. The Cornhuskers rank in the lower half of the Big Ten in hitting, but six Nebraska players in the starting lineup have hit .300 or better and led the Cornhuskers to a 13-4 record in the last 17 games.
- Big Red has scored six-plus runs in 25 of its 32 wins this season and has four walk-off victories in its last 15 games.
- The Big Ten Tournament champions for the second straight season, the 8-seeded Huskers were the lowest-seeded team to ever win the Big Ten Tournament. Nebraska went 4-0, beating No. 12 Michigan State, top-seeded Oregon, No. 9 Penn State and No. 2 UCLA on the way to the championship.
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