The first two games of the No. 9 baseball team’s five-game home stand were not the toughest games the Sooners have had to play this season, but they were beneficial heading into this season’s installment of the Red River Rivalry.

“[The Arkansas-Pine Bluff series] is getting us ready,” sophomore first baseman Cameron Seitzer said. “Texas is a great team, so we’re going to need everybody to be ready to go.”

The Sooners (22-3, 3-1) defeated the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions on Tuesday and Wednesday 26-3 and 16-1, respectively.

OU scored 10 runs in the second inning of the series opener en route to the 23-run beating, and multiple hitters had big nights at the plate. The Sooners tied a season-high with 19 hits and the 26 runs is a season high.

Seitzer hit for the cycle, something he said he’s never done, by going 4-5 with two RBIs and scoring five runs, and both sophomore catcher Tyler Ogle and junior shortstop Cale Ellis hit grand slams.

Ellis had a career high with seven RBIs in three plate appearances, all of which resulted in hits.

Senior pitcher Michael Rocha was credited with the win by throwing three innings and allowing one run. The Sooners used four pitchers Tuesday.

Wednesday’s game went by a similar script as Tuesday’s game, just without the 10-run explosion in an inning.

Seitzer had another solid game at the plate by going 2-3 with a home run and double with four RBIs. His six hits in the series raises his batting average to .416, and his two home runs raise his season total to seven.

“I’m feeling good,” Seitzer said. “Baseball’s all about streaks, and I guess I’m in one.”

Freshman right fielder Max White and sophomore left fielder Cody Reine also homered in the game. Five different Sooners hit home runs during the series.

Ellis added two RBIs in the eighth inning, giving him nine RBIs during the short series. He did not have any RBIs entering Tuesday’s opener.

Freshman pitcher Ryan Gibson pitched two shutout innings and received the victory. The win was Gibson’s third of the season.

Now that the Sooners are done with their two-game slaughter of the Golden Lions, OU will gear up for a pivotal three game series with the No. 7 Texas Longhorns at L. Dale Mitchell Park.

The series is slated to start at 6:30 p.m. Thursday and will continue through Saturday afternoon. Friday’s game is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and the series finale will start at 2 p.m on Saturday.

Junior pitcher Zach Neal (3-0) is going to start Thursday’s opener, junior pitcher Bobby Shore (4-0) will be on the mound Saturday and senior pitcher J.R. Robinson (1-1) will make his return to the weekend rotation as the Sunday starter.

The Sooners should have fresh arms out of the bullpen despite the two midweek games because head coach Sunny Golloway decided to go with the pitching by committee approach against the Golden Lions.

This weekend series promises to be a pitching struggle as both teams are in the top three in conference in team ERA. Texas boasts a 2.78 ERA, the best in the Big 12, and the Sooners are third in conference with a 3.37 ERA.

“We feel like we’ll going to be able to match them on the mound; it’s what we need to do,” Golloway said. “If your pitching can match each other, then your offense really comes into play and I like our chances there.”

If the game does come down to timely hitting against solid pitching, the Sooners have the edge with their .323 batting average compared to Texas’ .273 average.

This year’s series with the Longhorns is very similar to the one last year in the sense the two teams are very closely ranked. Last year OU was ranked No. 10 and Texas was No. 9 in the nation.

The Longhorns swept last year’s three-game series in Austin.

“It’s UT; it’s our rival,” Seitzer said. “We all know what happened to us last year—the sweep—it tore us up; it was not fun for us. We know what we need to do.”

The Sooners have not won a season series against the Texas since 1998, and since then the Longhorns have swept the season series against OU five times. Texas holds the all-time series lead over OU 120-40-2, and the last time the two teams met in Norman the Longhorns won two of three games.

“It’s going to be a big weekend for RPI, it’s going to be a big weekend for national seeding, it’s also going to be a big weekend for that Big 12 race we want to go after and win,” Golloway said.