Oklahoma baseball: Sooners' John Spikerman named Big 12 Player of Week
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma baseball's John Spikerman is the Big 12 Player for the Week for the period ending May 12.
The Sooner junior feasted at the plate in Oklahoma's three-game series sweep over the Baylor Bears this past weekend, collecting nine hits in 14 plate appearances, a lofty .643 batting average. Five of his nine hits were for extra bases, including a grand-slam home run deep over the right field fence. It was Spikerman's third home run of the season and his first career grand slam.
For the weekend, Spikerman had 10 runs batted in, 17 total bases, nine runs scored and a 1.214 slugging percentage.
Spikerman missed a number of games in March and April due to a hand injury. In 29 starts this season. he is batting a team-best .407 and .391 in conference games. He has 27 RBI and has scored 35 runs.
This is Spikerman's first Big 12 weekly award and the seventh this season for an Oklahoma player.
Joining Spikerman with Big 12 honors this week is West Viginia's Derek Clark, Pitcher and Newcomer of the Week in the conference.
Oklahoma leads the Big 12 by 3.5 games over Oklahoma State. The Sooners' series sweep over Baylor assured them of no worse than a tie for the Big 12 regular-season championship. Spikerman's return to action has been a big part of OU's success on the diamond this season.
The Sooners finish out the regular season this weekend with three games at Cincinnati. One more win will give Spikerman and his teammates the outright championship, the first by an Oklahoma team as a member of the Big 12.