Bedlam Baseball Weekend Thread

Oklahoma and Oklahoma State hook it up again this weekend on the baseball diamond and this time its for keeps. The Sooners beat the Cowboys 8-3 in Norman on April 5th in a mid-week game that had no weight in the conference standings. Oklahoma State brings an 8-4 conference record into the series which is two games better than the OU who sits at 6-5. This is a crucial series for both schools as far as conference standings are concerned. That's just one storyline to follow this weekend. 

The Sooners and Cowboys head into this series each bearing national rankings. This marks the fifth consecutive season in which one of the two schools carried a national ranking into the series. Oklahoma is ranked as high as #8 (by the NCBWA) and OSU #18. The Cowboys are also second in the Big 12 in hitting with an average of .304. 

Bedlam Pitching Match Ups

Oklahoma	Record	ERA	Oklahoma State	Record	ERA
Michael Rocha	7-1	1.02	Mike Strong	3-0	2.41
Burch Smith	5-2	3.83	Bran Propst	6-1	1.25
Dillon Overton	5-3	1.45	TBA

Oklahoma State owns a 135-128 series advantage over the Sooners but more recently Oklahoma has won six of the last nine games. Since the Big 12's inaugural baseball season in 1997 the Sooners and Cowboys have played 49 times with 30 of those being settled by three runs or less. They've split the 14 Big 12 conference series played against each other 7-7 so this weekend turns the advantage either north to Stillwater or south to Norman. 

Tonight's game is crucial as the winner of the Friday night game in Tulsa has gone on to win the series in 10 of the 14 series played since the Big 12 started. Oklahoma has an 11-9 record in Tulsa since 1991. 

Oklahoma leads the Big 12 in batting average (.330), home runs (29) and runs scored (266).