Oklahoma Sooners Baseball: Sooners Open Conference Play at Baylor

Oklahoma suffered a minor setback on Tuesday night, dropping a tight Bedlam contest 4-3 in Stillwater for its third consecutive Tuesday loss. That might be enough to drop OU like a hot potato from the top-25 rankings it just entered — but if the Sooners take care of business in Waco this weekend against the comparably ranked Bears, that midweek hiccup will be all but forgotten.

The (Probable) Matchups

Friday: Jake Irvin (5-0, 1.16) vs. Nick Lewis (3-1, 2.73), 6:35 p.m., FCS-Central

Saturday: Austin Hansen (3-0, 2.82) vs. Montana Parsons (1-1, 3.64), 3:05 p.m., FSSW+

Sunday: Devon Perez (4-0, 2.86) vs. Cody Bradford (3-1, 2.38), 12:05 p.m., FSSW

I’m literally just guessing on this Sooners rotation. The actual game notes just list a bunch of “TBAs,” which is a little weird considering Irvin is the only pitcher to start a Friday night game all season, but OU has lots of good options to take the mound this weekend.

The Bears (17-4, 1-2) are led by DH Matt Menard (.342, 15 runs) and outfielder Kameron Esthay (.292, 24 runs).

Sooners catcher Renae Martinez looks to stay hot after picking up two more hits on Tuesday. He’s batting a robust .373/.427/.582 so far with three homers, five doubles and 16 RBI.

Prediction

If one of these teams sweeps the other, it will move into the discussion for the Big 12’s upper echelon with TCU and Texas Tech. I don’t think that’ll happen, but give me OU’s pitching to take two of three in Waco.