It has been a tale of two seasons for the Oklahoma baseball team. The Sooners were 18-5 in nonconference play but a lackluster SEC slate with inconsistent play from both the pitching staff and the offense brought this team from fighting to be one of the final regional hosts to a team who was fighting to be one of the final two seeds in the NCAA Tournament.
Oklahoma will begin postseason play as part of the Atlanta Regional alongside the No. 2 overall seed Georgia Tech, The Citadel Bulldogs and UIC Flames. Georgia Tech (48-9) and UIC (27-27-1) will face off at 11 a.m. CT Friday on ACC Network and the Sooners (32-21) and Bulldogs (35-24) take the field for their matchup at 4 p.m. on ESPN+.
This regional does not look like the toughest one on paper, but Georgia Tech has been the top of the class in the ACC, including winning both the ACC regular-season and tournament titles. The Citadel made a miracle run through the Southern Conference Tournament as the 5-seed. The Bulldogs are one of the hottest teams in the entire country and head into the regional winning eight games in a row and 10 of their last 11 contests. UIC made its way through the Missouri Valley Tournament with two wins over Southern Illinois and a victory over Murray State on its way to the conference title.
If Oklahoma is going to win this regional and take down one of the powers of the sport this season, it is going to have to get back to what made it so successful in the beginning stretch of the campaign and get back to playing complimentary baseball.
Read more: SEC gauntlet has prepared Oklahoma for every team in NCAA Regional
Pitching has to show consistency
The Sooner pitching staff has had some of the ultimate highs this season along with some of the lowest of lows. Head coach Skip Johnson has moved a lot of his starting pitchers to different days and used an opener while trying whatever possible to get this group back to its early season success.
Johnson will give the Game 1 start to Sunday starter Cord Rager. Nobody's pitching performance has been high and above the others, but Rager has been the most consistent, and if he can give OU a good or great performance, it sets the Sooners up well for a potential 1-0 game against the Yellow Jackets. Rager holds a 3-3 record with a 5.88 ERA on the season.
Offense has to stay hot
A lot like the pitching, the offense has its ups and downs, but under Reggie Willits, the lineup has started to hit its stride down the final stretch.
The late season surge of Dasan Harris and Deiten Lachance has provided new life for this Sooner lineup. Harris leads the squad with a .356 batting average while Lachance holds that second spot with a .335 average and a team leading 12 home runs.
The biggest X-factor for Oklahoma in this regional is going to be the play of the middle infield. Kyle Branch and Jaxon Willits have been an excellent defensive pair but if they can get the bats going this weekend, it could put the Sooners in position to be in a Super Regional.
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