The success of this year’s baseball team is no surprise. On Media Day on Feb. 11, five-year head coach Sunny Golloway said that the combination of many players from the 2008 team and the newcomers would hopefully result in a trip to Omaha, Neb., and the College World Series.

And he was right.

The team’s veterans have led the way and younger players have stepped up and filled voids that the No. 18 Sooners needed after losing Mike Gosse and Aljay Davis to professional baseball and graduation.

Junior shortstop Bryant Hernandez led the team in RBIs and batting average for the majority of the season, and freshman third baseman Garrett Buechele followed closely and for a brief period took over the batting title.

Hernandez was named by the College Baseball Foundation and Mizuno to the list of potential watch list for the 2009 Brooks Wallace Award.

Senior catcher J.T. Wise and junior first baseman Aaron Baker led the team in homers prior to their Bedlam matchup last weekend.

Wise’s increase in offensive production and leadership from behind the plate has been one of the big X-factors during the 2009 season.

OU has been in Baseball America’s Top-25 since the preseason poll, starting as the 16th-ranked team in the nation. Heading into the team’s game against Southern Utah, it has posted a 34-14 overall record and is tied for fifth in the Big 12 with a 12-9 record.

Since the release of the preseason polls, the Sooners have been steadily rising in the polls.

During the week of April 27, the Sooners reached the highest rank of their season – ninth in the nation – but after a 1-3 week with losses to No. 17 Arkansas and No. 24 Kansas they dropped nine spots.

The team’s offense has carried the team for the majority of the season and has kept it in the running for hosting a regional playoff series. As of May 4, The Sooners boasted the best batting average and most home runs in the Big 12 with a .325 average and by hitting 79 homers, which is the most since 1998 and marks the fifth season that they have hit that many long balls.

When the hitting started to even out the pitching staff stepped up. Junior pitcher Andrew Doyle was the team’s Friday night starter and had an ERA of 4.19.

OU stormed through the first part of its schedule, getting out to a program best 29-8 record, but struggled once it reached the toughest part of its schedule.

In back-to-back weekends the Sooners played the No. 8 Texas Longhorns and at-time No. 9 Baylor Bears. They got swept by the Longhorns, but rebounded by sweeping a three-game set from the Bears in Waco.

The Sooners’ season is not over; however, as the baseball season will carry them well into the summer.