Update: The game has been postponed today and a doubleheader will be played Saturday starting at 2 pm, with the second game beginning 20-30 minutes after completion of the first game.
The Sooners venture across the Red River to take on the Longhorns in a critical Big 12 tilt over the weekend. Currently leading the league with an 8-4 record in conference play, Oklahoma has not lost a conference series, but has also failed to sweep any of their opponents. Riding the cusp of a long overdue hitting tear, the Longhorns have won seven consecutive games and seven of the last eight at UFCUDFF and look to extend their historic dominance of the Sooners. On the year, the Longhorns are 18-2 at home. More so than Oklahoma, the concern this weekend is the weather, as the Friday and Saturday games are in danger of being rained out. Updates on that as they come.
News and Notes
- Brandon Belt currently has an 11-game hitting streak, hitting .383 in Big 12 play, but an outstanding .458 over those 11 games, including eight extra-base hits and seven games with multiple hits. Kid is a great hitter and will have favorable match ups against right-handed pitchers for Oklahoma in at least each of the first two games.
- Kevin Keyes is working on a hitting streak of his own at eight games, a stretch that has seen him raise his average over .300, getting hits that are often a result of cutting down his big swing and making good contact with the ball, an approach taken across the board by Longhorn batters.
- The Longhorns will retire 17-year major league veteran Greg Swindell's no. 21 before the game on Friday. Check out the ridiculous stats from Swindell's sophomore season in 1985 -- 19-2 record, 1.67 ERA, 15 complete games, six shutouts, and 204 strikeouts in 172 innings. And you thought that the Longhorn pitching this year was impressive. A well-deserved honor for a Texas great.
- OU Saturday starter Stephen Porlier made his first start since 2007 last weekend and shutout the Red Raiders over five innings. Crimson and Cream Machine believes that Porlier and Andrew Doyle may be the top Friday/Saturday combination in the league. Undoubtedly Chance Ruffin and Cole Green will have something to say about that, as the Longhorns are one of two teams in the country to possess a team ERA under 3.00. Despite CCM's lofty claim about Doyle and Porlier, the Sooners are not the other team.
- Texas has traditionally owned the Sooners in baseball, a trend that has held over the last 10 years, as the only Oklahoma series victory came in 1998, with the Longhorns sweeping four of those series.
- Chance Ruffin, Brandon Belt, Brandon Workman, and Cameron Rupp have all been named to the 2009 Brooks Wallace National Player of the Year watch list compiled by the College Baseball Foundation.
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS
Friday, April 17, 2009 - 6 p.m. Central
Texas: RHP Chance Ruffin (5-2, 2.55 ERA)
Oklahoma: RHP Andrew Doyle (5-2, 3.67 ERA)
Friday, April 18, 2009 - 2 p.m. Central
Texas: RHP Cole Green (3-0, 2.42 ERA)
Oklahoma: RHP Stephen Porlier (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Saturday, April 19, 2009 - 1 p.m. Central
Texas: RHP Brandon Workman (3-3, 2.76 ERA)
Oklahoma: TBA