OU Baseball: Oklahoma Opens NCAA Tournament at UNC Eager to Take Next Step

Oklahoma’s first season in the Southeastern Conference didn’t produce a championship — or even a winning record in league play.

But the Sooners did gain something they will take moving forward into the NCAA Tournament: big-game experience.

Facing the Murderer’s Row of an SEC scheduled prepared OU for what’s ahead — starting Friday in the Chapel Hill Regional.

The Sooners open postseason play at 4 p.m. Friday against old foe Nebraska. Beyond a victory there is a likely date Saturday with No. 5 overall national seed and D1 Baseball’s No. 1-ranked team in host North Carolina.

Skip Johnson’s squad may or may not survive the weekend. They may or may not last past the herculean task of taking on the Tar Heels at home. But win or lose, Oklahoma will be ready.

That’s what the weekly SEC grind did for the Sooners. OU went 14-16 in league play and finished 12th in the standings, but the Sooners were almost always competitive.

After that, the NCAA Tournament should feel pretty manageable.

“Nothing really changes wherever we go,” said ace Kyson Witherspoon. “Just take the same mindset.”

Of the SEC’s 16 teams, 13 made the NCAA Tournament. Eight of those are hosting a regional this week. And six of the NCAA’s eight national seeds hail from the SEC. SEC teams have won the last five national championships, and 10 of the last 15.

“It shows you how hard this conference is,” Johnson said. “Everybody in the state of Oklahoma and all the fans and knowing we did the right thing going to the SEC. I mean that shows you what it’s about, (six of) the top eight seeds are SEC schools. Pretty incredible.”

How to Watch

North Carolina vs. Holy Cross (11 a.m.) on ACC Network and ESPN+
Oklahoma vs. Nebraska (4 p.m.) on ESPN+

But, SEC-ready or not, OU goes into regional action scuffling a bit. The Sooners finished April by losing at home to Oral Roberts, then dropped two of three at No. 10 Georgia. They took two of three against No. 23 Ole Miss, but then got swept at unranked Kentucky and dropped two of three at home to No. 3 Texas. Things were looking up in Hoover as OU beat Kentucky and Georgia in the SEC Tournament, but then the Sooners were ripped 6-1 by Vanderbilt.

“I thought we played really good the first two days, and we didn’t play defense the (third) day,” Johnson said. “That’s been our nemesis a little bit.”

OU was 12th in the SEC this year in defensive fielding percentage (.972), 11th in team batting average (.274) and seventh in earned run average. In other words, there’s plenty of room for improvement in the nation’s best baseball conference.

“Now we’re 0-0 again,” Johnson said. “We finished our season … and I think our conference tournament prepares us for Omaha because it’s almost identical to the things that happen in Omaha.”

Johnson said he hopes first baseman Dayton Tockey can return full-time to the lineup, as the team’s recent swoon tracks with Tockey’s injury. A month ago, Tockey “broke his ankle,” Johnson said, and was able to return to limited action last week at the SEC Tournament.

The immediate challenge now, of course, is the Cornhuskers. Nebraska is 32-27 overall and won the Big Ten Tournament after going 15-15 in league play. The Huskers’ RPI this year was 50th nationally, and their strength of schedule was 34th.

“They’re gonna be good,” Johnson said. “It’s a great program. They’ve been good for a long time. … It’ll be a great opportunity for us, for sure. They care a lot about baseball at Nebraska.”

Witherspoon (5-3, 2.98 ERA in SEC games this year, 10-3, 2.97 overall) will not get the start today against the Big Red in favor of his brother, Malachi (3-8, 5.53), who didn’t throw in the SEC Tournament.

If OU advances, the top-seeded Tar Heels loom (assuming they're not upset by 4-seed Holy Cross), and Kyson Witherspoon gets the nod. The Sooners’ pitching options then center on left-hander Cade Crossland, who emerged as a weekend starter over the second half of the season.

But Crossland (3-3, 7.09 ERA in SEC play) and Malachi Witherspoon (1-8, 6.08 versus the SEC) both took some hits in league play and will need to be much better in Chapel Hill for OU to get to a Super Regional for the first time since the College World Series run in 2022.

Expect Johnson to lean heavily on his bullpen this weekend and call on names like Reid Hensley (4-1, 2.67), Jason Bodin (2-1, 5.77), Michael Catalano (2-1, 4.50), lefties Jamie Hitt (2-0, 2.76) and Gavyn Jones (1-0, 5.93) and, of course, closer Dylan Crooks (2-1, 1.86 with 14 saves).

“I kind of wish Malachi would have gotten to throw in Hoover. I’m not really worried about Malachi that much,” Johnson said. “It’s always good to rest those guys this time of year. But I’m sure Malachi and Kyson probably went out and played catch two or three days in a row.”