Oklahoma Baseball: How OU Reserves Are 'Helping the Team Win' While Waiting for Their Shot
OMAHA – Oklahoma is playing for the national title.
But a team doesn’t reach this point on the backs of just two or three players. It takes everyone to navigate the season, the NCAA Tournament and the College World Series to be one of the final two teams standing.
The Sooners have had numerous guys step up and be the hero on any given day in this magical run, but it’s not all about what happens on the field.
In the dugout and in the bullpen are a plethora of players who, while they would certainly much rather be on the field, are doing everything they can to help the cause while off of it.
To head coach Skip Johnson, the reserve players’ ability to stay engaged and supportive is a testament to the culture established within the program.
“That’s when you have a good culture on your baseball team,” Johnson said this week. “It doesn’t matter about winning and losing, it matters about the culture of your team. If the culture of your team is there, then your chances of winning the game are greater. It gives you a greater edge to win the game.”
CWS Championship Series: How to Watch
Charles Schwab Field, Omaha
- Oklahoma vs. Ole Miss
- Saturday, 6 p.m.
- Sunday, 2 p.m.
- Saturday, 6 p.m.
- TV: ESPN
Oklahoma face Ole Miss in the best-of-3 championship series beginning Saturday night at 6 at Charles Schwab Field. Game 2 is Sunday at 2, and Game 3, if necessary, is Monday at. To the winner goes the national title.
Oklahoma made it to championship weekend because the Sooners have enjoyed fantastic starting pitching throughout their postseason run.
The downside of that, if there is one, is that many of the bullpen arms have gone unutilized just simply from lack of necessity.
The most glaring example of that is left-hander Chazz Martinez, who went from a weekend starter to a key bullpen arm over the course of the season and yet has not seen the mound to this point in the CWS.
Chazz Martinez
John E. Hoover / AllSooners
“Chazz is biting at the bullet to go down in the bullpen,” Johnson said after OU’s 5-1 win over Texas A&M on Wednesday. “You can see him getting ready for whatever inning it was. It was going into the seventh, and we had a list of guys ... we were going to use him in that list.
"Then when we got to the eighth inning, I was going to go with Trevin (Michael) because the matchups were better for Trevin than it was for Chazz. And he hadn't thrown, and Chazz is one of our better arms."
Perhaps sensing potential discouragement, Johnson noted to Martinez the importance of staying ready for when that opportunity might eventually come.
It's a sentiment he has offered to all of the Oklahoma players who are still waiting to taste game action at Charles Schwab Field.
“We have to keep telling those guys, 'Hey, finish,' ” Johnson said. “Finish. Keep looking at it. Keep working at it. Keep dreaming, doing all those little bitty things that get those guys out there on the mound.”
While Johnson and company would certainly love for everyone to get their crack at the diamond this week, they know they have to do whatever they can to put the team in the best position to win.
But they will continue to remind the bench players and bullpen arms that they can still play a role in helping the Sooners win their third title in program history even if they don’t see the field.
“Hopefully those guys can get in there,” Johnson said. “I know all of them are fighting to get in there, they want to try and help the team win. And they’re helping the team win just being present.”