Sooners Close Regular Season at Tech - University of Oklahoma - Soonersports.com

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Oklahoma

⁵Texas Tech

Thursday-Saturday, May 19-21 / Lubbock, Texas / Rip Griffin Park

Matchups
Game Time	OU Projected Starters	TTU Projected Starters
Thursday, 6:30 p.m.	LHP Jake Bennett	RHP Andrew Morris
Friday, 6:30 p.m.	RHP David Sandlin	RHP Brandon Birdsell
Saturday, 2 p.m.	RHP Cade Horton	RHP Chase Hampton

First Pitch

• Oklahoma (31-19, 13-8 Big 12) is looking for its fifth straight Big 12 conference series victory when it concludes the regular season at Texas Tech (35-16, 14-7 Big 12) this weekend at Rip Griffin Park in Lubbock, Texas. Game times are 6:30 p.m. Thursday, 6:30 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday.
• This weekend, the Sooners and Red Raiders are playing for at least a share of the Big 12 conference regular season title and seeding position for next week's Big 12 Championship. Oklahoma can win a share of the regular season title with three wins, while Texas Tech can win the title outright with three wins and a share with two wins.

Watch/Listen/Follow

• All three games will be televised via Big 12 Now on ESPN+, with John Harris and Mike Gustafson calling the action.
• The games will be broadcast on the Sooner Radio Network (locally on Sportstalk 99.3 FM/1400 AM KREF, Sportstalk1400.com and the Varsity Network app anywhere), with Toby Rowland on the radio call.
• Live stats will be available at OUStats.com.

Leading Off

• Through 50 games this season, the Sooners are 18-13 against the RPI top 100, including 13 top-50 wins (13-10) and five top-25 wins (5-6). OU's overall strength of schedule is ranked 18th in the country while its non-conference SOS is ranked 35th nationally.
• Redshirt sophomore first baseman Blake Robertson leads the nation in walks (60) and walks per game (1.2) and ranks among the national and Big 12 leaders with his .512 OBP (13th nationally; second in Big 12) and 20 doubles (24th nationally; leads Big 12). Peyton Graham ranks second in the Big 12 and ranks 27th nationally by averaging 1.2 runs scored per game, and his 59 total runs scored rank fourth in the Big 12 and 39th in the nation.
• Oklahoma is hitting .297 as a team and averaging 7.7 runs, 9.9 hits and 3.2 extra base hits per game (106 doubles, 43 home runs). The pitching staff has compiled a 5.66 ERA, 435 strikeouts to 190 walks and 489 hits in 445.1 innings and has allowed a .280 opponent batting average.
• Texas Tech is hitting .297 as a team. The Red Raiders average 9.0 runs, 10.5 hits and 4.2 extra base hits per game (128 doubles, 76 home runs). The pitching staff has compiled a 5.12 ERA, 502 strikeouts to 198 walks and 441 hits in 448.1 innings and has allowed a .255 opponent batting average.
• Oklahoma has scored double-digit runs in seven of its last 12 conference games and in 10 of its last 20 games overall. The Sooners scored 40 runs in the series against West Virginia last weekend. It was the third Big 12 series this season in which OU scored at least 40 runs in three games (46 vs. Kansas and 43 vs. Kansas State).
• Oklahoma is in its fifth 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 143-99 record since taking over as head coach prior to the 2018 season.

Series History

• Oklahoma leads the overall series against Texas Tech 50-44-1, though the Red Raiders have won eight of the last 11 meetings and 16 of 25 since the start of the 2014 season. In a similar number of games from 2007-13, the Sooners won 17 of 24 meetings. From 2003 through 2013, OU went 28-9 against TTU.
• The Sooners won the first meeting this season, 14-9, on April 12 at Hodgetown Stadium in Amarillo, Texas.
• OU won the Big 12 series opener last season, 9-8 in 10 innings. The Red Raiders the next two games by scores of 15-2 and 13-2, as well as the meeting in Amarillo (14-4).
• Texas Tech leads the series in Lubbock, 21-11. The Red Raiders have won three straight series played in Lubbock (2014, '16 and '18) while the Sooners last won a road series against Tech in 2012.

#LaunchPad

• The #LaunchPad is back for 2022. For the second straight year, pledged donations to a customized dollar amount for every homer that OU baseball hits in 2022 will go towards the the stadium renovation project. For more information, visit TheSoonerClub.com/LaunchPad.
• All donations from the Pledge Per Home Run Campaign will be treated as charitable donations supporting either the OU Softball Stadium Project or the OU Baseball Stadium Renovation Project and are tax-deductible.

Noting the Sooners

• For the season, Blake Robertson leads the Sooners with a .348 batting average (63 for 181), 60 walks, 20 doubles and a .512 OBP. Peyton Graham has team bests of 13 home runs, 49 RBIs (tied) and 59 runs scored while batting .335 (67 for 200). Tanner Tredaway is batting .337 (69 for 205) with a team-high 49 RBIs (tied), 12 doubles, five homers and 41 runs scored and Jimmy Crooks is hitting .298 (51 for 171) with 40 walks, 29 RBIs and 37 runs scored.
• In Big 12 conference play (21 games), Robertson is batting .387 (29 for 75) with 13 doubles, 21 RBIs, 28 runs scored and 33 walks. Wallace Clark is batting a team-best .397 (23 for 58) in 19 games and 15 starts, and has notched 13 RBIs, 18 runs scored, five doubles and 13 walks. Graham is batting .366 (34 for 93) with 37 RBIs, eight home runs, six doubles, three triples and 33 runs scored.
• Crooks has thrown out 15 of 51 potential base stealers this season, including 10 of 33 in Big 12 conference play. Since April 23, Crooks has thrown out eight of 13 runners stealing. He threw out three runners stealing in four attempts in the series vs. West Virginia, which entered the weekend ranked second nationally in stolen bases.
• Robertson has reached base in every game this season, except for two (second game of a March 13 doubleheader vs. UTSA and May 16 at Wichita State), and even in the UTSA contest he drove in two runs. In other words, Robertson has had at least one productive plate appearance in all but one game this season (each of the first 49 contests). He reached base in 35 consecutive games from March 15 through May 15.
• Since April 2 (26 games), Robertson has batted .379/.563/.642 (36 for 95) with 30 RBIs, 33 runs, 14 doubles, one triple, three home runs, 38 walks and 18 strikeouts.
• Since April 10 (21 games), Graham has hit .375 (33 of 88) with 25 RBIs and 33 runs scored. Fifteen of his 20 walks this season and six of his 13 home runs have come in the last 21 games. He has improved his batting average from .304 to .335 in that time.
• Jake Bennett has lasted at least 6.0 innings in eight of his 13 starts and allowed three or fewer runs in nine starts.
• Over the first 10 games of the season, Oklahoma scored a total of 35 runs (average of 3.5 per game) and did not score more than six runs in any game. Since then, the Sooners have scored 352 runs over the last 40 games (8.8 per game). OU has scored at least seven runs in 31 of those 40 games, and has posted a 26-14 record in that span (23-8 when scoring at least seven runs during the same timeframe).

Recapping the Last Week

• Oklahoma won its Big 12 series against West Virginia last weekend in its final home games of the regular season, and fell at Wichita State on Monday night. OU defeated WVU 15-2 Friday, fell 9-8 on Saturday and won 17-7 on Sunday.
• On Friday night, Jake Bennett struck out seven over his six innings and Wallace Clark drove in four runs. Jackson Nicklaus put the Sooners on the board with a solo home run in the third inning, and • OU put up crooked numbers in five of the next six frames. Clark's four RBIs were a season high. Brett Squires drove in four runs, including a two-run double with the bases loaded in the fifth inning, and Kendall Pettis hit two RBI singles.
• Oklahoma mounted a late rally on Saturday, scoring five runs in the final three frames, but fell short 9-8. OU trailed 6-3 in the seventh inning when Peyton Graham launched his 13th home run of the season to make it 6-5. The teams traded runs in the eighth inning and WVU added two runs in the top of the ninth on a home run to take a 9-7 lead.
• In the finale, Tanner Tredaway and Squires each homered and notched three RBIs. OU scored 10 runs over the fourth and fifth innings and put the game away with two runs in the sixth and seventh frames. Trevin Michael pitched the final 4.0 frames, striking out five batters and limiting WVU to one run and two hits.

Base Snatchers

• The Sooners have registered 118 stolen bases in 151 attempts through 50 games this season. OU surpassed its total from all of last year (46 steals) in the 18th game of this season.
• This is the first time an Oklahoma team has collected at least 100 stolen bases since 1996 (104) and the current total of 118 steals is the most since the 1989 season (168). This is the 13th time since 1962 that an OU team has totaled at least 100 stolen bases in a single season. The school record for steals is 192, set in 1975.
• Oklahoma ranks sixth nationally in stolen bases (118) and eighth in steals per game (2.36). Both figures rank second in the Big 12, only to West Virginia's 144 steals and average of 2.88 steals per game.
• Peyton Graham leads OU with 23 stolen bases, while Tanner Tredaway has 18 steals, Kendall Pettis has 17, Blake Robertson has 12 steals and catcher Jimmy Crooks has 10 steals. Additionally, John Spikerman has notched nine stolen bases in his 16 games. A total of 14 players have recorded at least one stolen base this season.
• Graham's 23 steals are the most by a single player since Chris Ellison had 24 steals in 2010. This is the first time five Sooners have recorded double digit steals in the same season since 1994 (Rick Gutierrez [32], Chip Glass [27]), Aric Thomas [23], Jerry Whittaker [14] and Rich Hills [10]).
• Oklahoma has registered at least 10 steals in a game twice this season. OU collected 11 steals against Wichita State on Feb. 22 (one shy of the school record set against East Central [Okla.] University in 1937), and stole 10 bases on April 16 against Pacific.
• On five occasions this season, a player has stolen three bases in a game. Three players — Graham, Pettis and Tredaway — each stole three bases in the Feb. 22 game vs. Wichita State. Graham notched three steals again vs. Texas on April 2 and Tredaway had three steals on April 6 at TCU. Prior to Feb. 22, no single Sooner had stolen three bases in a game since Ross against Hartford in 2012.