The Sooners have a difficult weekend ahead of them when they travel to Oregon to play in the Nike Showcase but before then they a have a two game midweek series against Arkansas Pine Bluff. With all due respect to the Lions the Sooners should be on a five game winning streak once this series ends Wednesday night.
The Lions have seven letterwinners returning from last season's team that finished 11-34. They beat Grambling on Sunday to end a ten game losing streak that they started the season with. The Sooners are 8-0 all-time against UAPB and last season beat them by a combined score of 39-8 in a two game series.
This series should be about the development of pitching and the continued focus on getting the bats going. Chris Burgess has been tabbed as Oklahoma's starter tonight. He's made one appearance this season in which he lasted one inning during which he allowed one hit and also walked a batter.
I would also expect to see Damien Magnifico get a lot of work over these two games to see if he can't find the zone and beyond that I expect that we may see one or two more pitchers that we haven't seen this season. No starter has been named Wednesday's game.
Oklahoma has moved up to third in the conference in team batting with a team average of .288. Tanner Toal was somewhat of an unexpected hero in the New Mexico series over the weekend. He is batted .429 with 2 RBIs and a run scored. Garrett Carey and Jack Mayfield have seen their averages increase to .353 and .320 respectively while Hunter Lockwood remains strong with a .300 average and team high 12 RBIs.
The Sooners are eighth in the Big XII in team pitching with a combined ERA of 5.01.