Oklahoma Sooners Baseball: Louisville Regional Preview & Viewing Info

The Oklahoma Sooners didn’t end their season on the highest of notes. Swept in a rain-soaked two games by the conference bottom-dweller Oklahoma State Cowboys, OU gave the Pokes a spot in the Big 12 tournament, where OSU promptly ran the table and won the whole thing.

The Sooners, for their part, couldn’t muster a single win in Oklahoma City and have now dropped four games in a row.

Things won’t get any easier for OU on Friday, when they begin the Louisville regional against the No. 3-seed Xavier Musketeers and their ace hurler Zac Lowther. Lowther has managed 115 strikeouts in 77 innings of work this season, good for a 2.81 ERA. He’ll be going quickly in this year’s draft, and the strikeout-prone Sooners will need plate discipline and good timing to beat him.

OU is sending Devon Perez to the hill against him. Perez has been one of the pitching staff’s most consistent contributors and has definitely earned this opportunity — but he’ll need one of his best outings of the year.

Oklahoma has never played Louisville, Xavier or Radford in program history, and this is a very high-stakes time to be introduced. The Cardinals are the heavy favorite to win this regional as the national seed with a bona-fide superstar on the roster in pitcher / first baseman Brendan McKay. Louisville is also 29-4 at home this year.

The hallmark of Oklahoma’s season has been inconsistency, but some of its best moments have come against the best teams. If OU can play to its competition again, it might just have a chance to move on to the supers.

How to Watch

OU’s opener against Xavier will be broadcast on ESPN3 / WatchESPN. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.