A return trip to Omaha will run through Norman for Oklahoma Sooners baseball. Well, at least for the first weekend. A crazy sentence to read. An even crazier sentence to write. The Sooners are the No. 9 overall national seed in the NCAA Tournament with regional play beginning on Friday.
Oklahoma just misses out on being a top-8 national seed.
While there was some shock within the east side stadium club at the Sooners watch party, Oklahoma head coach Skip Johnson wasn’t dwelling on the national seed snub.
“Not at all. We can’t control that. We only can control what we can control, and that’s going out and playing it one pitch at a time. One inning at a time. I’m extremely excited that we’re playing a regional at our field and looking forward to that opportunity with some teams coming in,” said Johnson following the Sooners watch party Monday morning.
Joining Oklahoma in the Norman Regional are No. 2 seed Duke (39-18), No. 3 seed Connecticut (32-23) and No. 4 seed Oral Roberts (27-30-1). The Sooners will open the NCAA Tournament Friday vs. ORU at 6 p.m. on ESPN+. The Blue Devils and Huskies also will meet Friday, beginning the event at noon. It is a double-elimination weekend.
Oklahoma and ORU split the season series. OU won 10-0 in Norman, while ORU returned the favor with a 3-1 victory in Tulsa.
“They’re good. I like it. They’re well-coached. They have been playing really good of late. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be exciting,” Johnson said. “Hopefully, we can have big crowds. BBQ pits out there going everywhere. It’s an exciting opportunity for our team.
“I don’t think they need to be reminded they know how good they are. We have just got to be able to play our game. Take it one pitch at a time. One inning at a time and do what we can control.”
OU was looking to land a national seed for the second time in program history. The Sooners were the No. 7 overall national seed in 2009 when Arkansas advanced out of the Norman Regional. OU still has never hosted a Super Regional.
If the seedings go to form this weekend, OU would travel to No. 8 Florida State in the Super Regional. Coincidentally, FSU softball traveled to Oklahoma for the softball Super Regional, won by the Sooners last Friday.
SOONERS HISTORIC SEASON BRINGS POSTSEASON BACK TO THE DALE
Oklahoma (37-19 overall, 23-7 Big 12) finished a historic regular season winning the school’s first Big 12 regular season title, Skip Johnson’s team was dominant throughout league play sweeping a school-record six weekends and setting the school record for conference wins in a season (23).
“The accomplishment of what we did all year is really big. Winning the conference the way we won the conference,” Johnson said. “We’re one of 64 teams of the some-300 teams in the country that have baseball to go to the postseason so that’s exciting as it is.
“When you get in a regional, you never know what’s going to happen. That’s a part of being in a regional. That’s the exciting thing about it. It’s what we built the program around. It’s what we’re trying to maintain. The program was built before I got here with Coach (Enos) Semore in how he did his job. That’s the watermark that we want to get to. Get into a regional and go to Omaha every year.”
Entering the NCAA Tournament, Oklahoma has won 11 of its last 13 games and has a 20-5 record over its final 25 games. OU went 3-1 last weekend at the Big 12 Tournament in Arlington, Texas, including a walk-off two-run home run by Jackson Nicklaus vs. Kansas. The Sooners lost to Oklahoma State in the Big 12 championship game.
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