After a dismal start to the 2016 season, Oklahoma is showing signs of life.
The Sooners started the year 12-13-1 before taking last weekend’s series over Texas and getting a midweek win by defeating Dallas Baptist for the first time in its last eight tries. That pulled OU to a winning record, and coach Pete Hughes’ squad enters this weekend’s series in a better place than it has been in a while.
“Yeah, there’s momentum there, there’s no doubt about it,” Hughes said. “And as a coach you’re waiting for those little segments in your season just to get on a run, and certainly by having a big weekend it certainly helps getting us going in that direction.”
Part of what has helped the Sooners right the ship has been strong pitching performances. A disastrous start from both would-be aces Alec Hansen and Jake Elliott left Oklahoma’s offense high and dry for much of the early portion of the season.
Elliott hopes to have gotten his legs under him after tossing five innings and giving up just two runs in the series clinching win over Texas. Hansen, however, has lost his spot in the rotation and seen his ERA skyrocket to 7.29.
OU’s saving grace on the mound has come from a couple of unexpected places. Oklahoma has seven pitchers outside the rotation with more than 10 innings pitched and a sub-3.00 ERA, four of whom are underclassmen.
Perhaps even more surprising has been freshman right hander Chris Andritsos, who has pitched himself into the weekend rotation with a 2.65 ERA. Opponents are hitting .180 against the young hurler, and Andritsos leads the Sooners with 34 innings pitched thus far.
On offense OU has been carried by Sheldon Neuse and his .396 batting average, but the rest of the lineup has shown some pop — 10 Sooners have hit home runs this season — and over the past week, Oklahoma’s role players managed hits in clutch situations.
“The offfense is coming around, the bullpen is coming in really good right now, our starting pitchers are going deeper in games, we’re cleaning up the little mistakes we were making in the field,” Neuse said. “Right now we’re a polished team I think, and hopefully we can carry that momentum going into this weekend.”
Oklahoma will play three games against Baylor this weekend, starting Friday at 6 p.m. The Sooners will then play the Bears at 5 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday.
