Overton To Take Mound For Sooners In Season Opener Against Pepperdine

Oklahoma officially starts the 2012 baseball season on Friday afternoon when the Sooners take on Pepperdine in Malibu, California. The first pitch is scheduled to be thrown at 4:00 (CST) and taking the mound for the Sooners in the opener will be sophomore lefty Dillon Overton.

Last season Overton finished with an 8-4 record. He appeared in a total of 23 games with seven starts. Over the course of 74.1 innings pitched he struck out 59 batters and allowed 72 hits. He was named to the Big XII All Freshman team and was also name a Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American. His 2.30 ERA ranked fifth among conference pitchers.

Behind Overton the Sooners are looking at a pair of JUCO transfers to get them through the weekend. Righty Jonathan Gray will start on Saturday and lefty Steven Okert will take the mound in the final game of the season on Sunday. Gray was 6-2 last season at Eastern Oklahoma State with a 2.89 ERA and 61 strikeouts. Meanwhile Okert was 9-1 with a 1,91 ERA last season at Grayson County College in Texas. Overton and Gray are sophomores and Okert is a junior.

Pepperdine was 22-34 overall last year and they return a total of 21 letterwinners from 2011 including three position starters and three starting pitchers. The waves will be throwing righty Jon Moscot (2-2 with a 4.27 ERA in `11), righty Scott Frazier (2-1 with a 1.00 ERA in `11 and Alex Najera (1-4 with a 4.79 ERA in `11) against the Sooners this weekend.

A weekend baseball thread will be up on Friday afternoon for updates and comments on the baseball action.