Walker misses Sooners’ tournament opener
Outfielder Steele Walker been Oklahoma’s biggest offensive weapon all season.
Walker is a semifinalist for the Golden Spike Award as the top player in college baseball and is a potential first-round pick in next month’s Major League Baseball Draft.
But Wednesday, Walker was forced to watch from the bench as the Sooners fell to Baylor, 4-0.
Walker was held out with what was described by Sooners coach Skip Johnson as a muscle strain above the hip. He suffered the injury late in Saturday’s win over Kansas.
“It’s really minute,” Johnson said. “It’s really small. He could come out tomorrow and feel great. We don’t want to take any chances of hindering him next week more than anything. We’re really going to need him next week.”
With Walker out, Johnson went with Domenic DeRenzo in right field. DeRenzo was making his his start in the outfield of the season after starting 15 games in right a year ago. DeRenzo went 1 for 3, with a single to lead off the third. has
Blue lights wake Baylor up
At breakfast Wednesday morning, Baylor’s trainers set up something else to go along with the food — blue lights. The colored bulbs are said to help the body become more alert in the morning and the Bears weren’t going to take any chances.
“It might sound dumb or kind of weird but it actually helps,” Baylor pitcher Cody Bradford said. “It’s kind of annoying so it wakes you up.”
The Bears won’t need the blue lights Thursday. They’ll take on Kansas at 4 p.m.
Locals return home
Four players who played high school baseball in Oklahoma who now play out of state returned to the state for the Big 12 Tournament.
Three of those players play for Kansas, including Wednesday’s starting pitcher Jackson Goddard, a Tulsa Holland Hall product.
Goddard threw 6 innings, allowing just one run on two hits in the Jayhawks’ victory. In addition to Goddard, the Jayhawks have Cache product Gabriel Sotomayor in the bullpen and redshirting Eli Davis of Shawnee. Davis is recovering from Tommy John surgery and is expected to pitch competitively for the first time since his surgery this summer during a trip to Taiwan for a USA Baseball event.
Texas Tech’s first baseman, Cameron Warren, is from Carl Albert.
Top seeds attempt to hold weekend starters
Texas and Oklahoma State finished in the top two spots in the league behind strong performances in weekend series, often benefiting from a consistent weekend rotation. Both teams, however, declined to start one of their three weekend starters in their opening games of the tournament, with the Longhorns and Cowboys both getting sent to the loser’s bracket.
Texas’ Matteo Bocchi lasted 3 innings in the Longhorns’ 3-2 loss to Kansas, while OSU’s Peyton Battenfield failed to get an out in the second as the Cowboys fell, 8-5, to West Virginia.
Nolan Kingman, Blair Henley and Chase Shugart started 23 of Texas’ 24 Big 12 games to the help the Longhorns win their first conference title since 2011. The trio remains available going forward as Texas will try to play its way to a tournament title, as well.
“We’ve got our three weekend guys left,” Texas first baseman Jake McKenzie said. “We aren’t worried about anything so we are excited to see how far we can take this and play some more games.”
The Cowboys, meanwhile, waited until the eighth to turn to one of their regular weekend starters, with righthander Joe Lienhard entering in the eighth with OSU trailing 8-5. Lienhard combined with Carson Teel and Jonathan Heasley to start all of the Cowboys’ weekend games.
RYAN ABER AND NATHAN RUIZ, STAFF WRITERS