Successful Sooners Big 12 sendoff season ends in a whimper
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma's depleted and tired pitching corps, which was exceptional in procuring a pair of elimination game wins on the same day a week ago in the NCAA Norman Regional, finally ran out of gas a day later in the winner-take-all championship game, and the top-seeded Sooners fell meekly to No. 3 seed Connecticut 7-1 to bring their 2024 season to a disappointing end.
Despite playing at home at L. Dale Mitchell Park, the Sooners (40-21) weren't able to muster much of a fight in falling in the regional final for the second straight season. It was almost like OU ran out of gas after avoiding elimination in two games in Sunday.
Oklahoma managed just nine base runners in the regional championship game off of UConn starter Gabe Van Emon, and six of them were left stranded. Two of the Sooners' seven hits in the game came in the ninth inning, when they strung together two singles and a throwing error to score their only run and avoid a shutout.
Easton Carmichael, who hits third in the OU batting order, and Michal Snyder, who bats fourth, combined for five of the seven Sooner hits. But it was not nearly enough to win what would have been the Sooners' third win in four times serving as a regional host. OU previously hosted in 2006, 2009 and 2010 and won in '06 and '10.
It was not the way anyone, let along the Sooner coaches and players, wanted the season to end, but it does nothing to diminish what otherwise was one of the more successful seasons in program history.
This 2024 OU baseball team achieved above expectations in its final year as a Big 12 program. They will need to carry over that fighting spirit and fan support when Oklahoma becomes part of an even more competitive baseball league that awits them in the SEC.
The Big 12 Baseball Preseason Poll had this same Sooner ball club finishing tied for sixth in the Big 12 standings. Whether that preseason ranking of the league coached served as motivation or not, it certainly was proved wrong.
The Sooners finished with a 40-21 overall record with 23 of those wins coming in the conference, the most in program history and two more than the previous record of 21 wins in OU's 1994 national championship season. Oklahoma finished with a conference record of 23-7 and won its first Big 12 regular-season championship, fittingly in its final year in the league.
"Our year came to an end. We had a good year...The fans were incredible. That's what it takes to be in the SEC. If we have the fan support we had the last half of the year, I'm excited about that moving forward."
- OU head coach Skip Johnson
The Sooners' success in the 2024 season was largely attributable to a lineup that averaged over eight runs a game and led the Big 12 with a team batting average of .311. Two OU players, Easton Carmichael (.366) and Michael Snyder (.354), finished in the top five in the Big 12 in hitting.
Braden Davis, a junior transfer from Sam Houston State, won seven of his last eight starts and finished with nine wins, the most in the Big 12. His teammate, Kyson Witherspoon, tied with two others for second-most wins with eight.
Oklahoma finished the regular season as the No. 8-ranked team in the country, according to the D1Baseball poll, and 11th in the USA Today Coaches Poll.
That's a major accomplishment for a team considered to be in the middle of the pack in the Big 12 to begin the season. It's a season to be truly celebrated, not hang your head over because of the way it sadly ended.
The future is bright for this Oklahoma baseball team as it exits the Big 12 and relocates and adjusts to life in the SEC.