TopFrog
Lifelong Frog
http://www.oudaily.com/news/2010/apr/20/so...unce-back-home/
[SIZE=14pt]Sooner baseball team looks to bounce back at home[/SIZE]
Jono Greco/The Daily
The past few weeks have been a trying time for the No. 18 baseball team since being swept by the Texas Longhorns at home during the first weekend of this month.
Since the sweep, the Sooners (26-10, 6-7 Big 12) have gone 4-4, and during those eight games they have been inconsistent in trying to right the ship back on course. One way OU tried getting back on track was by playing a team who it will square off against again at 7 p.m. tonight—the No. 12 Texas Christian Horned Frogs.
The Sooners beat TCU 4-2 when the two teams faced each other April 6 ago in Fort Worth, Texas.
OU is going to need another win tonight at L. Dale Mitchell Baseball Park, a place the Sooners are 13-4 this season. Leaving the diamond tonight with a victory is a doable assignment.
The fact that L. Dale Baseball Mitchell Park is a hitter-friendly ballpark will benefit the Sooners’ lineup, especially the middle of the order.
If head coach Sunny Golloway chooses to hit freshman utility player Max White between the three- and five-hole slot in the batting order, OU will be armed with 24 home runs from the power part of its lineup.
White and the two sophomore corner infielders, Cameron Seitzer and Garrett Buechele, each have eight home runs this season, and two of the three have driven in more than 30 runs. Buechele has 33 RBIs and Seitzer has 32 RBIs, and White’s RBI total of 23 would be higher if he had started more games—he has started 20 of the 30 games he has appeared in, which is more than 10 games fewer than the number of starts the other two big hitters have started.
If OU can reach or surpass the five-run mark, a mark the Sooners have been victorious 10 of the 11 times it has been reached at home this season, then things should go according to OU’s plans.
Another reason the Sooners can win tonight’s game is because they do not allow themselves to go on losing streaks, which they are on the verge of being in.
OU has lost back-to-back games three times, and only once has it lost a third-straight game. That one time was during the Texas sweep.
The Sooners have bounced back the other two times with victories. They avoided a losing streak by defeating the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the series opener this Saturday, and they are trying to do the same tonight against the Horned Frogs after losing the final two games against Texas Tech.
Considering how many games OU has played this year, having lost back-to-back games is extraordinary. And Golloway knows how to regroup his team before things go spiraling out of control; he should be able to do the same with his players tonight.
[SIZE=14pt]Sooner baseball team looks to bounce back at home[/SIZE]
Jono Greco/The Daily
The past few weeks have been a trying time for the No. 18 baseball team since being swept by the Texas Longhorns at home during the first weekend of this month.
Since the sweep, the Sooners (26-10, 6-7 Big 12) have gone 4-4, and during those eight games they have been inconsistent in trying to right the ship back on course. One way OU tried getting back on track was by playing a team who it will square off against again at 7 p.m. tonight—the No. 12 Texas Christian Horned Frogs.
The Sooners beat TCU 4-2 when the two teams faced each other April 6 ago in Fort Worth, Texas.
OU is going to need another win tonight at L. Dale Mitchell Baseball Park, a place the Sooners are 13-4 this season. Leaving the diamond tonight with a victory is a doable assignment.
The fact that L. Dale Baseball Mitchell Park is a hitter-friendly ballpark will benefit the Sooners’ lineup, especially the middle of the order.
If head coach Sunny Golloway chooses to hit freshman utility player Max White between the three- and five-hole slot in the batting order, OU will be armed with 24 home runs from the power part of its lineup.
White and the two sophomore corner infielders, Cameron Seitzer and Garrett Buechele, each have eight home runs this season, and two of the three have driven in more than 30 runs. Buechele has 33 RBIs and Seitzer has 32 RBIs, and White’s RBI total of 23 would be higher if he had started more games—he has started 20 of the 30 games he has appeared in, which is more than 10 games fewer than the number of starts the other two big hitters have started.
If OU can reach or surpass the five-run mark, a mark the Sooners have been victorious 10 of the 11 times it has been reached at home this season, then things should go according to OU’s plans.
Another reason the Sooners can win tonight’s game is because they do not allow themselves to go on losing streaks, which they are on the verge of being in.
OU has lost back-to-back games three times, and only once has it lost a third-straight game. That one time was during the Texas sweep.
The Sooners have bounced back the other two times with victories. They avoided a losing streak by defeating the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the series opener this Saturday, and they are trying to do the same tonight against the Horned Frogs after losing the final two games against Texas Tech.
Considering how many games OU has played this year, having lost back-to-back games is extraordinary. And Golloway knows how to regroup his team before things go spiraling out of control; he should be able to do the same with his players tonight.
