OU Baseball: Oklahoma Meets Oral Roberts in Norman Regional

The Sooners split the season series against the Golden Eagles during their 2024 campaign and will meet their in-state counterparts for a third time on Friday night in the Norman Regional.

Oklahoma Sooners head coach Skip Johnson / Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

NORMAN — On Friday night, Oklahoma will host its first NCAA Regional contest in 14 years when the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles make their way to Norman.

The year after a 52-win season last year in which ORU make a run to Omaha, the Sooners' in-state counterparts will look to repeat their postseason success from 2023 and play spoiler to a regional host.

Last summer, the Golden Eagles took down then-No. 11 Oklahoma State, Washington and then-No. 14 Dallas Baptist to win the Stillwater Regional and advance to the NCAA Super Regionals in Eugene, OR. Oral Roberts knocked off then-No. 13 Oregon twice in three games to advance to the College World Series in Omaha.

Following their impressive run, however, the Golden Eagles lost a handful of talented players to the MLB Draft and were unable to replicate last season's success, going 27-30-1 this season. Still, ORU was able to string together a few good performances in the Summit League Tournament to win the conference and make its way back to the NCAA Tournament.

Oral Roberts defeated North Dakota State 11-3 before taking down Northern Colorado 14-0 and 11-4 in back-to-back outings. With the Golden Eagles' recent stretch, OU head coach Skip Johnson knows that his team is set to take on a tough opponent who returns multiple key pieces of the lineup from last year's World Series squad.

“For them (to be back in the NCAA Tournament) is really good,” Johnson said Thursday. “Shows you what kind of leadership they have. I mean, (ORU head coach) Ryan (Folmar) does a great job, and their staff, we know them well. See them on the recruiting trail, we have a good relationship with them. A lot of our guys know those guys. They do it the right way, and they’ll continue to do it the right way because he’s a good coach.”

Friday night's matchup between the two schools in the Sooner State won't be the teams' first meeting this year, with OU and ORU squaring off twice already this season in midweek contests. On March 26, the Sooners annihilated the Golden Eagles 10-0 in seven innings in Norman, but Oral Robert's got its revenge a month later, topping Oklahoma 3-1 in Tulsa on April 30.

Despite losing to the Golden Eagles in their most recent matchup, Johnson seems excited for the opportunity to face the squad from Tulsa in the Norman Regional, saying that a hard-fought game against a tough opponent helps prepare his team for what lies ahead in the postseason.

“They’re an aggressive team; they know us well too,” Johnson said. “I think they’re well coached, they’ve got some guys that are coming back from an Omaha team and it’ll be a good game. They’re not going just lay down. You don’t want them to. You want them to play their best game. You want them to give you everything that (they) got because that’s what prepares you for the next game, or moving on.” 

According to Johnson, sophomore right hander Kyson Witherspoon will start on the mound for OU against ORU. The Northwest Florida State College transfer is 7-3 this season with a 4.01 ERA and has tallied 81 strikeouts in just 74 innings.

The Sooners' matchup against Oral Roberts is slated for 6 p.m. Friday at L. Dale Mitchell Park, with the winner set to take on Duke or Connecticut on Saturday at 8 p.m. The Blue Devils and Huskies play at noon Friday in Norman.

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