As the 2016 season approaches, Oklahoma baseball is focused on not making the same missteps that kept last year’s 34-27 squad out of the NCAA Tournament.
It does so with 21 fresh faces, meaning there are plenty of question marks heading into OU's season opener Feb. 19. One area the Sooners don’t have to worry about, however, is the top of their rotation.
“The strength is the starting pitching, no question,” coach Pete Hughes said at the team’s media day Monday. “If you have the top two guys back in your rotation it starts there.”
Returning starters Jake Elliott and Alec Hansen will make up OU’s one-two punch, giving them one of the best in the Big 12.
Hansen, a flamethrowing junior from Loveland, Colorado, finished last season 5-6 with a 3.95 ERA and a team high 94 strikeouts. He showed marked improvement from an inconsistent freshman campaign and Hughes hopes to see more of the same from the tall right-hander this year.
“We hope he makes the same jump he made from his freshman to sophomore year,” Hughes said. “He’s been good, his last outing - both these guys in the last outing Saturday was outstanding.”
Hughes won’t be the only one watching for improvement from Hansen. He has made several watch lists as the potential No. 1 overall pick in this summer’s MLB draft. Hansen was drafted in the 25th round by the Colorado Rockies out of high school before deciding to come to OU, and is now listed by Baseball America as the nation’s No. 2 college prospect.
Elliott is no slouch, either. The junior right-hander led the team with 88.1 innings pitched last season and compiled a 3.06 ERA. This offseason the Coppell, Texas, native worked on adding a third dimension to his game.
“I would say that the biggest area of growth was… my third pitch, my breaking ball,” Elliott said. “I knew that was my weakness, and has been for a while. So that was my major point of emphasis this fall and this winter when I was back home was just to develop that as best I could, and I feel like I’ve grown a lot in that area.”
Hughes had positive things to say about Elliott’s improvement as well.
“(Elliot’s) a strike thrower, and he’s so dependable. For the most part, you run him out there you know you’re going to be in the sixth or seventh inning with a quality start,” Hughes said. “He’s become more of a three pitch guy and I think Jake will be the first one to tell you that he was mostly a two pitch pitcher, a very good two pitch pitcher, but I think this will help him get through an order another time.”
Behind Hansen and Elliott things become a little less clear, but the Sooners have options among the bevy of freshmen and junior college transfers they added this offseason.
If forced to make a decision now though, Hughes said the third spot in the rotation would belong to left handed junior Austin Kerns, who picked up 100 strikeouts in 64.1 innings last season for Eastern Oklahoma State University.
“I think you need a nice left hander to balance those two righties out in the rotation,” Hughes said.
Oklahoma opens its season at home Feb. 19 against Northeastern University.
