FIRST PITCH
• No. 18 OU returns to L. Dale Mitchell Park this weekend for the final regular season home series vs. Baylor. First pitches are set for 6:30 p.m. CT Friday, 4 p.m. CT Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.
• Saturday, the program will retire the jersey of former head coach and all-time winningest coach, Enos Semore. Sunday will serve as senior day for OU's nine outgoing seniors.
• The series can be seen via SoonerVision on ESPN+ and heard locally in Oklahoma on SportsTalk 1400 AM/99.3 FM or nationwide on The Varsity app.
• The Sooners enter the weekend with a 29-17 record and 18-6 record in conference play, sitting atop the Big 12 standings by three game with two weekends to play.
LEADING OFF
• Nearing the end of the regular season, the Sooners hold a 29-17 record, highlighted by a top-10 win over then-No. 9 Tennessee, fourranked victoriesand five Big 12 sweeps for the first time in program history.
• OU's five conference sweeps are the most in the program's history as part of the Big 12 and the most across conference play since 1995 (Big 8).
• OU currently holds 18 wins in Big 12 play, the most since winning 19 in 2004. The program record for Big 12 wins is 20, set in 2000. 21 conference wins is the school record, set in 1994 and 1995 as part of the Big 8.
• OU is looking to win its first Big 12 regular season title in program history. The Sooners must win three games to clinch a share of the crown and four victories would win the title outright. OU has three Big 12 tournament titles (1997, 2013, '22)
• Before the streak was snapped on April 28, the Sooners went on a nine-game win streak, good for the longest win streak since the 2017 team won 12 straight.
• Oklahoma is in its seventh season under the direction of head coach Skip Johnson (including the 2020 season that was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Johnson, who spent the 2017 season on staff as an assistant coach, has led the Sooners to a 218-149 record, three NCAA Tournament appearances, the 2022 Big 12 tournament championship and the 2022 College World Series finals since taking over as head coach prior to the 2018 season.
THE NUMBERS
• The Sooners are batting .305 as a team, good for second in the Big 12, paced by sophom*ore John Spikerman and Easton Carmichael's .375 and .358 clips, respectively. Junior Jackson Nicklaus leads the team and ranks seventh in the Big 12 with his .465 on-base percentage.
• Graduate transfer Michael Snyder leads the team with 48 RBIs and 18 doubles (4th in B12 & 34th in the country) while senior Bryce Madron has a team-best 10 home runs and 36 walks, also leads the team and Big 12 with 58 runs scored (33rd in nation). Sophom*ore Easton Carmichael paces OU with 66 hits, good for a tie of third in the conference.
• 11 Sooners have homeredfor a total of 58 team blasts, led by Madron's 10, while nine other Sooners have three or more.
• 10 Sooners have brought in at least 10 runs, with eight plating 20 or more.
• On the mound, the Oklahoma pitching staff has a 5.27 team ERA with 436 strikeouts to 214 walks.
• Junior LHP transfer Braden Davis has been exceptionalin his Friday night role with 12 starts as a Sooner, leading OU with 84 strikeouts in 65.0 innings pitched.The OU ace has surrendered just one run in his last 13 innings pitched, combining on his third and OU's fourth shutout last Friday at Tech.
• Sophom*ore righty transfer Kyson Witherspoon(7 GS) paces the starting pitchers with a 4.19 ERA in 58.0 IP to go with 66 strikeouts, while transfer Brendan Girton has 43 K's in 32.2 innings pitched, seeing time as a starter and reliever.
• The pitching staff has recorded double-digit strikeouts in 21 of OU's 46 games with a season-high 15 four times (vs. Tennessee [2/17], vs. Wright State [2/24], vs. West Virginia [3/22], at BYU [4/18]).
• The Sooner arms have thrown four shutouts in 46 games played in 2024, the most since five in 2019. The three shutouts rank second in the Big 12 and 15th nationally.
• The Sooners have had 18 pitchers make appearances so far in 2024, with 14 registering 10-or-more strikeouts and 10 surpassing the 20 K mark, led by junior LHP Davis' 84.
• Head coach and pitching coach Skip Johnson and the Sooners have 22 pitchers on the roster in 2024.
RECORD WATCH & NUGGETS
• Kendall Pettis currently sits 10th on the the program top-10 list with 56 career stolen bases. Coincidentally, Pettis has recently passed OU associate head coach Reggie Willits' career mark of 54 and OU assistant coach Todd Butler's 53 in his two seasons at OU from 1987-88 (including a program record 46 in '87).
• Senior Bryce Madron has drawn 97 career walks as a Sooner in just two seasons in Norman. His 97 BB currently ranks inside the top 20 in program history and is just eight shy of the top 10. Madron's 61 walks drawn in 2023 ranked fourth in program single-season history.
• Redshirt senior LHP Carter Campbell is currently third in program history with 86 career appearances. Fellow senior Carson Atwood has 80 career appearances, good for a tie of sixth in school annals.
• Junior Jackson Nicklaus has hit 25 career home runs in his three years as a Sooner to rank 17th in program history. Nicklaus is just six shy of cracking the program top-10 list.
• 6-4, 226-pound redshirt senior Michael Snyder has stolen 13 bases on 14 attempts in 2024 after not registering a stolen base in four seasons at the University of Washington, a testament to OU and associate head coach Reggie Willits' 'CHAOUS' brand of baseball, creating havoc on the base paths.
• Six Sooners hold double digit multi-hit games on the season, led by sophom*ore Easton Carmichael's 23 games with multiple knocks. Anthony Mackenzie is close behind with 18. Nicklaus holds OU's single-game high of four hits (vs. Lamar, 3/28). 13 Sooners have multi-RBI performances, paced by Snyder's 14. Bryce Madron holds the single-game season high with 7 RBI vs. BYU (4/20), the most by a Sooner since 2010.
HONORING LEGENDARY COACH ENOS SEMORE
• The Oklahoma baseball program announced Tuesday that OU will retire legendary coach Enos Semore's No. 24 jersey this Saturday before the Sooners' 4 p.m. game vs. Baylor.
• Semore, the winningest coach in OU baseball history with a record of 851-370-1 (.697), led the Sooners from 1968-89. He directed OU to five straight College World Series appearances from 1972-76 and collected a program-record 62 wins in 1976.
• A 2005 American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee, Semore's OU teams won seven Big Eight Conference titles, with six coming in a seven-year stretch from 1972-78 when the Sooners went a combined 316-97 (.765) and the other in 1986. His squads finished third or higher in the Big Eight standings in 19 of 22 seasons and finished no lower than fifth.
• In his final season of 1989, Semore was named the Big Eight Coach of the Year. Additionally, he helped spearhead the building of L. Dale Mitchell Park in 1981, the Big Eight's first true baseball stadium, moving the program from its previous home at Haskell Park to its current location on south campus.
• Prior to his tenure at Oklahoma, Semore spent five seasons as the head coach at Bacone (Okla.) Junior College where he compiled a 152-22 record. In 1967, his team won the national junior college championship.
• A graduate of Northeastern (Okla.) State University in 1956, Semore was a four-year letterman in basketball and baseball for the Riverhawks and was inducted into the school's athletics hall of fame in 1989.
• Born in Haskell County, Okla., Semore still resides in his home state, retiring in Noble, Okla. He and his late wife, Mary, have three children: Lee, Janie and Scott.
• Fans are encouraged to arrive early for the ceremony, which will begin at approximately 3:30 p.m. on the field.
SENIOR SUNDAY
• OU will honor its nine outgoing seniors pregame Sunday as part of senior day and the nine Sooners' last regular season home game at L. Dale Mitchell Park.
• Carson Atwood, Jason Bollman, Carter Campbell, Will Carsten, Jett Lodes, Anthony Mackenzie, Bryce Madron, Kendall Pettis and Michael Snyder will all be honored.
• From graduate transfer to five-year Sooners, the nine have combined for 147 wins, one Big 12 tournament title and one Men's College World Series appearance in 2022.
LAST TIME OUT
• OU swept Texas Tech in Lubbock for the first time since 2006.
• The sweep marked OU's program-record fifth Big 12 sweep on the season and it was the first time Tech had been swept at home in Big 12 play since 2007, and OU's first sweep of the Red Raiders since 2011.
• The OU bats were on fire, batting .315 as a team on the weekend with 11 extra-base hits, including five home runs.
• The OU arms held down an offense that ranks first in the Big 12, shutting out Tech Friday for the first time this season.
• With the sweep, OU extended its Big 12 lead to three games on Oklahoma State, Texas and West Virginia with two weekends to go.
DAVIS NAMED BIG 12 PITCHER OF THE WEEK...AGAIN
• Junior LHP Braden Davis was named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Week for his Friday night performance at Texas Tech, the conference announced the weekly awards Monday.
• Davis was lights out in the series opener vs. Tech, throwing seven scoreless innings to combine on his third shutout of the season. Davis surrendered just two hits with two walks to go with eight strikeouts.It marked the lefty's fourth straight Friday night victory, moving him to 5-1 in Big 12 play with 62 strikeouts in conference play, good for second in the league.
• Davis became the only Big 12 pitcher to earn the weekly honor twice this season, also becoming the first to win in consecutive weeks.
UP NEXT
• OU heads to Ohio for the final week of the regular season, playing a midweek at Xavier (26-22) on Tuesday before the final Big 12 series of the year Thursday through Saturday at Cincinnati (27-21, 13-11 Big 12)
LED BY THE VETS
• Veteran leadership highlights the 2024 Oklahoma squad, paced by redshirt seniors Kendall Pettis and Michael Snyder, seniors Anthony Mackenzie and Bryce Madron, and juniors Jackson Nicklaus and John Spikerman.
• The six combine for 992 career games played and 931 starts. Production at the plate includes a combined 108 home runs, 185 doubles and 599 RBIs.
RANKINGS CHATTER
• The Sooners made their season debut in the polls the week of March 18, earning spots in all four major polls. OU made its return to the ranks in a big way last week (April 22), leaping back into all fourpolls.
• This week's rankings have the Sooners at: No. 17 (Baseball America, USA Today Coaches) and No. 18 (D1 Baseball, NCBWA).
• The Sooners are 4-1 in ranked contests this season, all four wins beingagainst top-15 opponents.
• Oklahoma holds the No. 7 strength of schedule in the nation, having been as high as No. 1 for a number of weeks.
• OU ranks 17th in the latest NCAA RPI, having been as high as third this season.
• OU is 5-1 in games vs. 2023 Men's College World Series participants, beating No. 9 Tennessee, a three-game sweep of No. 12 TCU and splitting the season series with ORU.
RECAPPING THE SEASON
• After dropping the season opener to Oregon, the Sooners bounced back in a big way with a pair of wins vs. No. 9 Tennessee and Nebraska in dramatic fashion at the season-opening Shriners Children's College Classic at Globe Life Field in Arlington.
• Opening the home slate vs. Wright State, the Sooners came sprinting out of the gates on offense, putting up a combined 46 runs on the weekend, highlighted by a 20-0 home-opening day win on Friday.
• The Sooners opened Big 12 play in dominant fashion, sweeping a UCF team that came to Norman at 9-1 and fresh off a win at No. 4 Florida.
• Oklahoma stayed unbeaten in conference play with an impressive three-game sweep of No. 12 TCU in Fort Worth, March 15-17. It marked OU's first sweep of TCU at Lupton Stadium and first sweep over the Horned Frogs since 2013.
• OU dropped home series' to West Virginia and Lamar and was narrowly edged by OSU in Stillwater but rebounded with a seven-game conference win streak, including back-to-back Big 12 sweeps of Kansas State in Norman and BYU in Provo.
• After a series loss to Texas in which the rubber match was called short in the seventh inning with OU trailing by two, the Sooners responded with a three-game sweep at Tech for the first time since 2006.
• The Sooners are 5-4 in midweek contests in 2024, highlighted by a season sweep of Wichita State.
• Fans have tuned in and showed out for the trending Sooners, with attendance records being set at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman. On home-opening weekend, the fan base set records for: largest opening day attendance, largest student attendance and largest opening series attendance.
• In 2024, OU has set the top three single-game attendance marks in program history, recently breaking the all-time mark with 4,812 in attendance for OU's Friday night win over Texas on April 26. It broke a 29-year-old attendance record of 4,544 vs. Texas in 1995
• In addition, the OU-Texas series in Norman set a single-series program attendance record with 12,335 fans attending the three-game set, shattering the previous record of 7,269 vs. Texas in 2014.
THE SKIPPER SURPASSES 200 WINS AT OU
• OU head coach Skip Johnson collected his 200th career victory at Oklahoma on March 15 with OU's 7-3 win at No. 12 TCU.
• Oklahoma is in its seventh season under the direction Johnson (including the 2020 season that was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Johnson, who spent the 2017 season on staff as an assistant coach, has led the Sooners to a 218-149record, three NCAA Tournament appearances, the 2022 Big 12 tournament championship and the 2022 College World Series finals since taking over as head coach prior to the 2018 season.
• Johnson holds 632career wins as a head coach, earning 414 at Navarro (TX) College before making the jump to Division I baseball where he's won 218at OU.
L. DALE MITCHELL PARK EXPANSION PROJECT
•The Oklahoma baseball facility enhancement project will transform the look of the ballpark from both the interior bowl and the exterior of the stadium. New locker rooms, training areas, coaches offices and team meeting areas combined with chairback seating, terraced berms and additional awnings and concourses will provide a first-class facility for fans and student-athletes. In addition, a new, state-of-the-art performance and player development center will be added. A new entry to the team areas will include a Champions Lobby, displaying the success and tradition of the Oklahoma baseball program.
•More than 35,000 in square-foot-space of new areas benefiting student-athlete performance and recovery including a robust medical services area, weight room and sports science to centralize student-athlete training at the baseball field.
• For more information and to donate to the L. Dale Mitchell project, visit The Sooner Club.
For updates and more information on Oklahoma baseball, follow the Sooners on Twitter and Instagram (@OU_Baseball) and likeOklahoma Baseballon Facebook.
