Sooner struggles
After last weekend’s sweep at the hands of Oklahoma State in which the Sooners were outscored 27-3, Oklahoma is in desperate need of positive momentum as postseason looms closer.
NORMAN — After Thursday’s practice at L. Dale Mitchell Park, Oklahoma’s baseball team scurried into the clubhouse.
Their coach, Skip Johnson, wasn’t waiting on his team to chew them out for their recent struggles — the Sooners enter this weekend’s home series against Kansas State having dropped seven of nine Big 12 games.
Instead, the team was ready to play Team Mafia, a game Oklahoma has used for several year to kill time on long road trips and to help bring the team together.
It had been awhile since they’d played and Thursday seemed as good a time as any.
“No one wants to play on the bus when we lose,” second baseman Kyle Mendenhall said.
After last weekend’s sweep at the hands of Oklahoma State in which the Sooners were outscored 27-3, Oklahoma is in desperate need of positive momentum as postseason looms closer.
The leaders of the team — especially the offensive leaders like Mendenhall and outfielder Steele Walker — are working to exude calm even as the bats have grown cold and the arms that carried the Sooners to an 8-0 start in conference play have faltered.
“We’re fine,” Walker said. “We’re not worried. I’m still having fun, even though last weekend was brutal.”
The positive for the Sooners is that their only two remaining Big 12 series are against the lastplace teams in the league —this weekend against the Wildcats and May 17-19 at Kansas.
Opponents are hitting .309 against Kansas State — the highest in the league by more than 30 points — and the Wildcats have allowed 55 home runs, 20 more than the next-closest staff in the league.
Johnson said it was “100 percent important” to gain back some offensive momentum in this series.
Through four Big 12 series, the Sooners were hitting .304 in conference play. In their last two series, Oklahoma is hitting just .257.
“All offense is contagious,” he said. “Three weeks ago would you say we were the same offense as we were the last three games? No, because we were hitting everything they threw up there. It didn’t matter if it was 95 or 75, it got barrelled. It was just getting contagious and we were scoring early.”
Johnson is trying to mix things up a bit, starting freshman left-hander Levi Prater in Saturday’s game in place of the struggling Devon Perez.
Johnson said Perez would be available out of the bullpen if necessary.
The Sooners will also once again be without Connor Berry, who has resumed flat-ground throwing and Johnson said he’s hopeful Berry would be able to pitch again next week against Central Florida.