FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
NORMAN, Okla. — The 2009 baseball season is quickly approaching and SoonerSports.com will preview the Sooners with a three-part series beginning with a general outlook of this year’s squad.
Stay tuned for previews later in the week on the Sooners’ pitching staff, catchers, infielders and outfielders.
Oklahoma is ranked No. 16 in Baseball America’s preseason poll.
The Sooners began team practices on Sunday, Feb. 1 and will open the 2009 season at home on Friday, Feb. 20. The season opener against Western Illinois is slated for a 3 p.m. start at L. Dale Mitchell Park and is the first of four games set for the weekend.
The last time the Sooners opened a season at home was in 2003, a 9-5 win over Texas San Antonio on Feb. 14.
The 2008 Sooners finished with a 36-26-1 overall mark and lost to then-No. 4 Arizona State in the NCAA Tempe Regional final. OU returns 18 letterwinners from that squad, including seven position starters and six hurlers with at least five starts.
Head coach Sunny Golloway is entering his fifth year at OU’s helm since taking over at the end of the 2005 season. The Sooners are 127-78-1 under Golloway and have appeared in three NCAA Regional finals in the last four years, including the program’s lone super regional appearance in 2006.
2009 PREVIEW – EXPERIENCE = SUCCESS
Like several collegiate baseball teams across the country, head coach Sunny Golloway was forced to rebuild in 2008 after losing several key players to the draft and graduation.
The 2008 season saw OU start five newcomers in the field and roll out a pitching staff with nine hurlers who saw significant time in their first year. After numerous ups and downs, things came together in the final weeks of the season. The young Sooners silenced the critics and gained experience by finishing one game away from playing for the Big 12 Championship for a second straight year. Following the strong play in the conference tournament, OU played in its third NCAA Regional final in the last four years, this time in Tempe, Ariz.
OU played its last 10 games against ranked teams, including seven contests against top 10 teams, and posted a 5-5 record. The experience gained from the success in those games has Coach Golloway and his staff excited for what 2009 has to bring.
“Our players are better prepared and more experienced,” said Golloway. “We are battle tested as a team and this season has an opportunity to be special. We have a great blend of talent and we’re looking forward to building off last season’s postseason success.”
The Sooners are once again primed to make another run at the Big 12 title and NCAA Tournament as they return nearly the entire pitching staff as well as seven position starters.
Golloway and company, ranked No. 16 in the preseason by Baseball America, realize the importance of finding success in Big 12 play after finishing third in 2006, which resulted in hosting the NCAA Norman Regional and the program’s first Super Regional appearance.
“Our goal is to win the Big 12 and get back to Omaha. You have to have experience to get there,” added Golloway. “As we continue to develop, with our chemistry, we expect to be more consistent throughout the season as compared to the last two years. We have placed a huge emphasis on playing well throughout the regular season and, if we want to win the Big 12 and go deep in the postseason, we have to play at a high and consistent level.
“Winning the Big 12 has to become a belief for each athlete and coach. We have always finished strong and that is well documented with our regional final appearances in three of the last four years. Where we have fallen short is in league play and that has to change.”
The Sooners’ offense is led by junior first baseman Aaron Baker, who was a freshman All-American in 2007 and led the team in RBIs a year ago with 61. Baker is joined in the field by another three-year letterwinner and key component of OU’s stretch run in 2008, Bryant Hernandez, at shortstop. Other returning catalysts in the OU lineup include seniors Matt Harughty and J.T. Wise, junior Jamie Johnson and sophomore Casey Johnson.
The defense is poised to return to the form that led the nation in 2006. While Baker, Harughty and Hernandez make up the infield for OU, the Johnsons will roam the outfield.
The experience is evident in the pitching staff as well, which is led by junior Andrew Doyle. The hurler made 15 starts and recorded 72 strikeouts in 99.1 innings in 2008 and is joined by another two-year letterwinner in the rotation, Garrett Richards. The duo has appeared in a combined 83 games over the past two years and amassed nearly 180 innings in that span.
Seven other hurlers who started a game on the mound for Oklahoma last season also return, including five with at least five starts. That excludes junior Stephen Porlier, who led OU with 99 innings and 99 strikeouts in 2007 before missing last season with surgery.
The Sooners will start the 2009 slate on Feb. 20 and host Western Illinois in a four-game set. The weekend series is the first time OU has opened a season at home since 2003 and marks the first of 28 games set to be played at L. Dale Mitchell Park this season.
In addition to the Leathernecks, the Sooners will face UCLA, California, TCU, Wichita State, San Diego and Arkansas in some marquee non-conference match-ups.
OU will face 12 opponents that participated in last year’s NCAA Tournament for a total of 27 games, which includes nine teams that finished the season ranked in the top 25.
The 27-game Big 12 schedule begins at Kansas State on March 20-22. The Sooners will also travel to Missouri (April 3-5), Texas (April 17-19) and Baylor (April 24-26) during conference play. In Norman, Oklahoma will host Nebraska (March 27-29), Texas Tech (April 10-12), Kansas (May 1-3) and Texas A&M (May 15-17) in Big 12 action.
The Bedlam Series will take place the second-to-last weekend of the year. Game one between OU and Oklahoma State is set for May 8 in Tulsa at Drillers Stadium. The rivals return to Oklahoma City for the final two games of the series, slated for May 9 and 10 at the AT&T Bricktown Ballpark.
