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OU Baseball: Oklahoma's Kyson Witherspoon Lands SEC Honor

The Sooners' junior right hander is off to a great start this season as OU goes into a busy week with a 6-0 record.
John Hoover|
Oklahoma pitcher Kyson Witherspoon
Oklahoma pitcher Kyson Witherspoon | Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

Oklahoma pitcher Kyson Witherspoon’s 2025 season is off to a memorable start.

The Sooners’ junior right-hander beat Minnesota on Friday in the opening game of the Round Rock Classic.

On Monday, after OU climbed to No. 16 n the polls, Witherspoon was named Southeastern Conference Pitcher of the Week.

The honor is Oklahoma's first SEC weekly baseball award in program history and Witherspoon's first career weekly accolade.

Witherspoon struck out a career-high 12 batters with zero walks as the No. 20-ranked Sooners beat the Gophers 3-2. It was the first step to a 3-0 weekend for OU as Oklahoma claimed the Round Rock championship with victories over No. 7 Oregon State and No. 2 Virginia to improve to 6-0 on the season.

Witherspoon hurled seven innings and allowed just one run on three hits. 

After giving up his first home run of the season on a leadoff homer in the first, Witherspoon went on to retire the next 13 batters in a row before allowing a single in the fifth inning. 

Witherspoon is now 2-0 on the season after a five-inning victory in the opener against Lehigh, and his earned run average is 2.25.

Witherspoon earned preseason All-SEC and All-America honors this year after going 8-3 with a 3.71 ERA last year.

The Sooners return home for a five-game homestand at L. Dale Mitchell Park starting Tuesday and Wednesday with 4 p.m. games against Texas Southern (1-6) and a three-game weekend series with Cal State-Northridge. All games can be seen via SECN+. 

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John E. Hoover
JOHN HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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