College Baseball Preview: Oklahoma At TCU

Oklahoma baseball has bounced back from mid-week losses suffered last Tuesday and Wednesday by stringing together some wins. Sunday's game three against the Kansas Jayhawks was rained out, giving the Sooners a 2-0 series advantage. Last night's 11-0 win over Mid-America marked OU's third consecutive victory and now for the second time in two week's Oklahoma will attempt to continue a winning streak on the road.

The Sooners travel to Ft. Worth to take on a TCU program that is 26-15 on the season and 18-7 at home. They are powered on offense by Jason Coats who is leads the Frogs in batting average (.329) and is among three players hitting .301 or better. Coats is also tops on the team in RBIs with 33 but Josh Elander is the team's power hitter. Leading the way in home runs (6) he also has 29 RBIs.

Facing TCU batters will be Dillon Overton and Damien Magnifico. Overton has a 5-2 record on the season with 73 strikeouts and a 3.66 ERA over 77 innings of work. He's averaging a little more than five innings per appearance this season. Meanwhile Magnifico is sporting a 1-1 record. Over the course of 36.1 innings he's struck out 24 batters and has a 3.47 ERA. He's lasting an average of 2.2 innings per appearance this season. To this point he's only drawn four starts. According to Coach Galloway, the plan is to use both pitchers tonight and then bring them back on Sunday for the final game of Bedlam.

As a team the Sooners are batting .273 but have three players batting over .300, led by Max White who is the reigning Big XII Player of the Week. White leads the Sooners in hits (62), batting average (.365) and RBIs (46). Freshman Hunter Lockwood's nine home runs are a team and Big XII Conference high.

TCU will be throwing Brandon Finnegan against the Sooners tonight. He's earned a 2-3 record this season with a 3.41 ERA. Oklahoma currently ranks seventh in the Big XII in team batting and fifth in pitching.

First pitch in tonight's game is scheduled for 6:30.