OU eliminated by TCU.
After Thursday afternoon’s 9-4 loss to TCU ended their run in the Big 12 Tournament, Oklahoma coach Pete Hughes said he wants to get his players’ minds away from baseball for a bit.
“Sometimes you step away from it, and it’s the most productive thing you can do,” Hughes said.
“Will I walk out of this meeting and really worry about our team going into the regionals? Not this group. Not for a second.
“I just don’t doubt the character of our team and the talent level of our team. If you have those two things, you can get through a lot, and we’ve already proven that.”
Time is running out for these Sooners, though.
Oklahoma overcame a 1-9 stretch midway through the season to get itself back into the mix to host an NCAA Regional after series wins at West Virginia and at home against TCU late in the year.
But a four-game losing streak — two against Oklahoma State last weekend and two more in the tournament at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark — likely ended any chance of that happening.
Against the Horned Frogs on Thursday, a big part of the Sooners’ struggles came from the mound.
On the TCU side, Jared Janczak returned for the first time in a month and looked like every bit the ace he was before suffering a shoulder injury in mid-April.
Janczak went five scoreless innings, striking out eight and walking one while allowing just three hits.
“He had a good sinking fastball around 90-92, and then he had a big slider with a lot of break on it that was tough, and he was hitting his spots well,” OU first baseman Austin O’Brien said.
“We just couldn’t get anything going off of him.”
The Sooners didn’t have any more success against Charles King, who threw three shutout innings in relief — and before things fell apart a bit for the rest of TCU’s bullpen in the ninth, when Oklahoma scored four runs.
On the other side, OU’s starter Jake Irvin looked good for long stretches but struggled big-time in the second inning when six consecutive hitters reached base, including three on walks.
Austen Wade lined an infield single off Irvin’s shin to drive home the second run. After some warmup pitches, Irvin decided to stay in the game but walked the next batter to force home a run.
“I think that’s on me,” Irvin said.
“I’ve got to take a little more time. I think that given a minute or two, things would’ve been a little bit better, but I think after that, it was using a lot of my arm and not a whole lot of push off.
“But it felt fine toward the end so that’s what matters.”
Sooners pitchers walked 18 in the two tournament losses.
It was the first time since 2005 that Oklahoma did not win at least one game in the event.
The Sooners must now wait until Monday to find out where they’ll go for the NCAA regionals.
“This is such a tightknit group,” Irvin said. “All these guys love each other so much. Adversity is not such a bad thing. We’re going to battle together, and that’s what we’ve got.”